The Grand Emperor
by Darth Malleus
Summary: Once the nine of them were considered gods, Nine Great Lords of Hueco Mindo. Then they vanished without a trace. Reality became legend, legend became myth and even their names were lost to history. Then Aizen had to go and awaken the strongest of them.
1. Prologue

_**Naruto**_

_**Bleach**_

_**The Grand Emperor**_

_**Summary:**_ Once the nine of them were considered gods, Nine Great Lords of Hueco Mindo. Then they vanished without a trace. Reality became legend, legend became myth and even their names were lost to history. Then Aizen had to go and awaken the strongest of them.

_**Category: **_Action/Adventure/Drama

_**Rating: **_T

_**Disclaimer: **_I do not own Naruto or Bleach. They are the respective properties of Musashi Kishimoto and Tite Kubo. I'm just burrowing a few of their characters for a while.

* * *

Who am I?

Where do I come from?

What am I?

Where do I belong?

These are questions which I asked myself at first, when I awoke in this accursed land.

I don't know who I am, or where I originally come from.

I don't know what I am, and as far as I know I belong nowhere.

I have no name, none that I remember.

As to how old I am, well, when the years turn to decades, centuries, even millennia one eventually stops counting.

All I know is at first I had the visage of an animal, a long sinewy creature with skin of hardened white carapace, and nine flowing tails followed me wherever I went like a shroud. I was smaller than most creatures, and at first I thought of it as a weakness. It was not until I made my first kill that I realised that size mattered very little in this world, and I have killed many more since then.

Over time my body began to change, and over a course of hundreds of years I slowly changed from a four legged creature to a two legged, bipedal form. By my fifteen hundredth year I had become what my subconscious saw me as, what I most likely looked like when I was human. Over these long years I slowly realised that not only was my body evolving but my intelligence as well, I began to remember things and commit them to memory.

I quickly realised that I was not like the others around me, for one I didn't seem to follow their evolutionary cycle. I didn't need to merge with hundreds of Hollows to become what was known as a Gillian. Even the higher levels didn't look anything like me, for although they took on more human appearances it couldn't hold a candle to me.

It was not until many years later that I realised that I had become the first true Vasto Lorde level Menos Grande. Over time I found others just like me, stronger than the rest who had gained almost completely human visages. We travelled together for a time before separating, carving out nine vast territories in this world to call our own.

We would go down in legend and lore as the Nine Lords of Hueco Mundo. The first nine Hollow to be truly called Vasto Lorde. There had been none before and none nearly as powerful since. We were the mothers and fathers of the final evolutionary hurdle, brothers and sisters who transcended life and death. We became monsters with a conscience, monsters that reclaimed their souls as well as our bodies and intelligence.

I even remembered my own name.

It was Naruto, Naruto Uzumaki.

I was the first to remember my name, but I would not be the last. The others slowly began to remember their identities, and over time we became something more than those around us. We became Vasto Lorde. We became the Nine Lords of Hueco Mundo.

Gaara,The Ichibi no Shukaku

Yugito, the Nibi no Nekomata

Yagura, the Sanbi no Kyodaigame

Yoshi, the Yonbi no Saru

Rin, the Gobi no Ookami

Utakate, the Rokubi no Namekuji

Fu, the Nanabi no Kabotumushi

Kirabi, the Hachibi no Kyogyo

And me, Naruto, the Kyubi no Yoko

Our reign lasted for millennia, and then something happened. It began as a rumour that one of our siblings, the Fifth Lord, Rin, had vanished from her territory. Then news slowly reached my wizened ears that the others had suffered a similar fate, one by one I lost contact with my siblings until I knew I was all that remained, and that I was next.

I still remember that day. The day I met the ones who had driven a wedge into our combined domains. He called himself the King of the Soul Society, Spirit King, and his thirteen warriors, the first Captains of the Shinigami Court. They introduced themselves as such. I had heard of the term Shinigami before, but I had never met ones of such raw spiritual pressure.

I learned that they were the ones who hunted down my comrades, to eliminate us as a threat to both them and the worlds they watched over. With that they struck, but I was not defenceless. The battle lasted for days, destroyed my fortress and massacred the majority of my subordinates. In return I had personally killed six of his Captains and engaged him. Our battle had been a battle of gods, one that scarred the very earth and turned the surrounding landscape into wastelands.

The eternal desert of Hueco Mundo came into existence through this conflict.

He won by doing what he had done to my comrades, by whittling down my strength and sealing me away, under the ruins of my fortress for all eternity. Centuries passed, and while my body had been sealed my soul was still able to see the goings on of Hueco Mundo. The Nine Lords became stories of legend, then myth, and it was many centuries before something interesting happened again.

Shinigami had entered my fortress, now a ruin, and defeated the one who had called it home, some young pup named Baraggan, supposed God-King of Hueco Mundo. God of Hollows preserve me. How far our race has fallen if that skeletal fool is one of the strongest?

The Shinigami returned my fortress to its former glory and gathered an army with his goal being all out war with the Soul Society, and to take the Spirit Kings place. If only he knew I was down here I might have helped him, but he seemed a little off for my tastes. He gathered ten of the strongest Menos he could find and through some unnatural alchemy turned them into something not Hollow nor Shinigami, Arrancar, yes that was what he called them.

Arrancar

Espada

I didn't know how it happened, maybe it was just the age of time whittling away the effectiveness of the seal I was trapped in, or perhaps it was the presences of so many powerful beings that weakened my prison. All I know is that over time I felt my coffin getting weaker and weaker, until it was weak enough for me to tweak it, push the barrier back and forth until hairline cracks began to form. It would only take a single burst of my spiritual pressure to blow the top off, and I would be free.

I waited until I felt the presences above me begin to disappear. I may have been considered the more powerful of the first Vasto Lorde but so many years of captivity had weakened me to the point where I would not have been able to defeat everyone skulking about my fortress.

So I slept.

I had waited for a couple of a thousand years, what was another hundred?

I wasn't sure how long I slept for, maybe a few hours or a few years. I didn't really keep count. But I was jarred awake by a great explosion of spiritual pressure, then another and another. It must have been impressive if it awoke someone like me. There was a battle taking place above, and it looked like it was winding down.

I reached out with a withered hand, pressing it against the cool surface of my coffin. The seal had corroded to the point where the slightest blast of energy would have shattered it. I spoke, voice croaking and raspy after so many years of disuse.

"Well, might as well say hi."

I released a small amount of several thousand years of pent up spiritual pressure.

Maybe a little too much

But it did the trick.

* * *

Byakuya Kuchiki had felt many powerful spiritual pressures in his lifetime, as a Captain of the Goteijusantai he had been called upon to deal with many a powerful Hollow, and just recently he had been selected as part of an infiltration group to find and aide the Substitute Shinigami and his allies when they haphazardly entered Hueco Mundo against their advice.

He was the head of the prestigious Kuchiki family, Captain of the sixth Shinigami Court Guard Division and considered one of the strongest and most experienced Captains of the next generation, yet in all of his years as a Shinigami Captain he had never felt a spiritual pressure this huge, not even the Zero Espada who stood before him in his released form, not the battle loving Captain of the eleventh Division nor the clearly mad scientist Captain of the twelfth, were nearly as powerful.

The ground several dozen meters behind them bulged and exploded, throwing sand and rock high into the air, allowing a powerful blade of crimson spiritual pressure to break through and pierce the air with an almost suffocating aura. It reached so high that it pierced through the ceiling of the fortress of Las Noches, an impressive feat considering the incredible size of this place and the height of its roof.

The battle between Shinigami and Arrancar came to a sudden halt as the three combatants turned to watch the spectacle in both wonder and terror. Byakuya Kuchiki wasn't familiar with this powerful Rietsu, but knew at an almost instinctive level that it spelt more bad news for the infiltration team of Shinigami Captains.

A figure stepped through the crimson energy as simply as a man would step through mist or fog, hand making a simple horizontal cutting gesture that dispelled the spiritual pressure surrounding him. He was clothed in rags which might have once been considered clothing, but he could not discern their original colour as they were covered in dirt and filth.

He took the guise of an old man, face wrinkled and tanned from extreme age. Hair, turned white from age, stringy and unkempt as it fell all the way down to the small of his back. Exposed skin marred with liver spots, and form as thin as a rake, ribs pulling his skin taught and wiry arms and legs. He was literarily nothing more than skin and bones.

The eyes were the only thing that did not look decrepit, a brilliant blue with showed an abundance of life and intelligence behind them.

He looked around and took a deep breath, before breaking into a mass of sputtering, hacking and coughing. He spoke after he regained control, voice raspy and croaking from what seemed like lack of use.

"Hmm, I suppose I have to fix this shouldn't I?"

He didn't wait for anyone to answer as a dense spiritual pressure surrounded him, crimson and bubbling, so strong that anyone not Captain level on the rector scale would have fallen to their knees or collapsed into unconsciousness, even death. Byakuya looked on with a wide eyed fascination as this being transformed before them.

His wrinkled and liver spotted skin became smoother and took on a more healthy tan. As he de-aged right in front of them Byakuya noticed whisker marks on the man's face, three on each cheek. He watched as muscles started to bulge across his body before it was overtaken by cloth as the rags seemed to recover into actual clothing. A white shirt and pants, black knee high boots and a white overcoat lined with black. His white hair bleached from white to a vibrant gold, before being cut from the flick of his right wrist. A mass of blonde locks fell to the desert sands as that which remained seemed to spike naturally.

What stood before them as the spiritual pressure receded was not an old man of skin and bones but a young man in his early to mid twenties, handsome and powerful with a broad grin of white teeth. When he spoke his voice was not croaking and raspy, but gravelly and cheerful.

"Ah, that's better!"

The three Shinigami Captains and one Espada blinked as they looked at this creature as he himself began to look around, a look of awe on his features as he checked out the huge fissure running along the ceiling of the grand fortress. A reminder of the colossal battle which took place between Ichigo Kurosaki and the Fourth Espada, and then he looked around at the ruins of the once grand Las Noches.

"Wow, someone's really been redecorating this place. Must have gone insane from all these neutral colours, I mean really, white, did the decorator have an off day or something?" He looked down at his clothes before making a distasteful face. "Where is the life in these things? Where is the colour and vibrancy?"

Byakuya blinked at the new arrivals rant before looking at the expressions of his fellow Captains. It was what he had expected. The Captain of the twelfth Division looked at this man with a mixture of awe and clinical fascination, not surprising considering Mayuri Kurotsuchi was a scientist right down to his rotten core. The Captain of the eleventh Division looked at the new arrival with a manic grin. Obviously Zaraki Kenpachi wished more than anything else to fight this mysterious newcomer.

Surprisingly it wasn't him who spoke first. It was the Zero Espada, Yammy Llargo. The giant monstrosity roared angrily at this fourth opponent, making the blond turn around and look at the Arrancar with narrowed eyes, almost giving the impression his eyes were slanted. He didn't look very intimidated, Kuchiki realised, more like questioning.

"_**Who the hell do you think you are?" **_ The giant roared as he neared closer to the blond stranger, three original opponents forgotten. _**"Waltzing in here like you own the place. You must have a death wish!"**_

"Who the hell do I think I am?" The newcomer asked with a broad grin, even as the most powerful of the Espada reared back his huge fist for a blow which would have probably levelled an entire building, or a block of buildings. "Why I'm Naruto Uzumaki, and I waltzed in here like I owned the place because-"

The fist came down with a thunderous crash, throwing up tonnes of sand and debris as it made contact with its target. It took some time for the dust to finally settle, but when it did the blond stood, unmoving and unhurt, hand raised in a palm which seemed to stop the multiple times larger fist of the released Espada like it was child's play.

"_Because,_" he continued, smile still in place but without even a trace of mirth. "I waltzed into this place because I _own_ this place!"

He vanished in a blur of motion, completely disappearing from Byakuya's senses. Then he reappeared right in front of the Zero Espada, hand reached out as if to flick the storey tall giants forehead. Which he did, sending Yammy skidding back by several dozen meters before falling on his spiked back, flattening the remains of what must have once been a cylindrical pylon.

The blond landed in a crouch, azure eyes glaring at the fallen giant with an intensity Byakuya could feel from his place, then they settled on him and he froze, feeling a mass of killing intent which would have killed most humans.

"Now then, not to sound cliché but." He stood, spread his hands and looked to the broken roof of Hueco Mindo. "After three thousand years I live _again_!"

* * *

_**Author's Note 1: **_I know, I know, don't upload new ideas when I have so many unfinished ones on this site, but I couldn't help myself with this. The _In the End _crossover has officially been discontinued until further notice, after rereading it I realised how many nagging little annoying details that contradicted each other. I might try and rewrite it someday.

_**Author's Note 2: **_Not really sure what I want to do with this one, so reviews are always appreciated and welcome. I'm thinking this will be another story, maybe three or four times longer than _A Moment in History._


	2. Think of me as the Talking Air

_**Chapter 1**_

_**Think of me as the Talking Air**_

Mayuri Kurotsuchi, Captain of the 12th Division.

Kenpachi Zaraki, Captain of 11th Division.

Byakuya Kuchiki, Captain of 6th Division.

All three men were some of the most powerful Shinigami the Goteijusantai had seen in several generations. Captain Kurotsuchi was one of the most intelligent Shinigami to hold the position, barring his predecessor, and creator of the infamous Shinigami Research and Development Institute, Kisuke Urahara.

Kenpachi Zaraki was one of the deadliest Shinigami the Soul Society had ever seen, killing his predecessor even without achieving Shikai or Bankai. He wasn't even able to speak with his Zanpakuto and yet he was one of the most feared men in history.

Byakuya Kuchiki was one of the finest swordsmen to come from the four noble houses, who were already well known for their capacity to produce excellent Shinigami, handed down the position of Captain when his grandfather, Ginrei Kuchiki, knew he was ready and retired.

All three men were some of best and most deadly of their generation. They had seen much in their century as Captains of the Thirteen Shinigami Court Guard Divisions and were not easily intimidated or surprised. But it appeared these last few years had been nothing but one surprise after another.

First a human who gained Shinigami powers was able to not only break into the Soul Society but defeat Captain-class Shinigami and rescue his target. Then Sosuke Aizen, a respected fellow Captain of the Shinigami Court Guard not only betrayed the Shinigami but fell in league with their deadliest foes, the Hollows, to gain his objectives. He took two other Captains with him when he defected, which was another surprise.

Now these three Captains had just gained their fourth great surprise. A single man appeared before them and not only stood up to the most powerful of Aizen's creations but sent him flying with a simple poke of his finger. They didn't recognise either him or his spiritual pressure, but it was powerful, terrifyingly powerful.

Now the three Captains simply looked on with a mixture of bafflement and fascination as this strange man hopped up and down, rolling his shoulders and cranking his neck. Almost as if he was exercising before a major workout.

His expressive azure eyes were glinting with anticipation, and the toothy grin he wore didn't waver as the Zero Espada groggily rose, shaking his head as blood trickled down his face. Another surprise, that poke had enough power behind it to puncture the Hierro, the armoured skin of a released Arrancar, an Espada at that.

"Hey, buddy boy." Yammy froze and glanced back to see the blond haired stranger sitting idly on his shoulder. His head quickly looked back and forth from the place where his opponent once stood to the place where he now sat. The image standing on the sands just seemed to dissolve into the very air. He moved so fast that he left an afterimage behind. "What were you looking at?"

Only the Septima Espada, Zommari Rureaux, was able to move at such advanced speeds. Yammy turned to glare at the idle blond, but instead blinked when he saw the man pointing at his nose, that same toothy grin still in place.

"Bang!"

A cero exploded from his fingertip, a simple ball of crimson energy which exploded into a concentrated beam of deadly spiritual pressure. The blast slammed into the Zero Espada's nose and a snap of crushed bone and cartilage echoed through the broken fortress. Yammy roared in anguish before falling back to the desert sands, blood splattering from his recently broken nose.

The blond form dissolved into the air as the Zero Espada hit the ground with such force that a small scale earthquake shook the fortress, loose sekiseki rock fell away from half demolished structures. There was almost a full minute of silence before those assembled knew that the Espada wasn't going to be getting back up anytime soon.

The Captains were immediately on alert, searching the dunes for any sign of the newest warrior. They found him standing a scant few meters behind them, bowing theatrically, head downturned and blond bangs covering his upper face. That grin was still in place, but with what was witnessed it had a more vicious aura about it.

"Who are you?" Kuchiki asked, outwardly unimpressed by the display even as his hand slowly strayed for the unsheathed hilt of his Zanpakuto.

"It doesn't matter." The blonde straightened, looking at each man in turn before a smirk crossed his whiskered features. "You three can just think of me as the talking air."

"The talking air?" Kenpachi scoffed at the notion, pointing his ragged sword at the newcomer. "What kind of name is that? If you're the talking air then do us all a favour, stop talking."

"_Ooooh _scary," The blonds' voice was full of sarcasm before gaining a trace of anger. "It seems that not much has changed after three thousand years. You Shinigami have always had no manners, even with the first generation it was always the superior attitude and cocky cannot-be-beaten belief that really pissed me off."

He began slowly walking towards them, hands in his pant pockets and posture giving off an air of noninterest, but with every step he took the air got thicker and thicker. His eyes were like twin dead pits of blue as he calmly watched them, and once he was within ten paces he spoke, voice commanding. "What are you doing in my domain?"

The spiritual pressure was so dense it was almost palpable, yet the Captains simply looked on, finally one of them replied. It was Kurotsuchi, hopping down from his perch. "What do you mean _your domain_?"

The blond grinned, but it was maniacal and full of malice. "Exactly what I meant, all that you see here is mine. From the eternal desert to the underground forests to the fortress itself is my domain, my territory. This is a sanctuary for the lost, Shinigami have no authority and no right to be here."

Kenpachi snarled, "Who the hell are you!"

"Your obviously not one of Aizen's little pets," Mayuri added, completely ignoring the 11th Division Captains murderous glare.

The blond grinned as he brought up his right hand, thumb pointing at his face. "Who am I? Let me tell you a story. Three thousand years ago the first generation of Shinigami Captains came to this land. They pillaged, destroyed and purified, but of the numerous thousands of lost souls there were nine who had the power to match them, and best them, the Nine Lords of Hueco Mundo. The Shinigami knew that if these nine Vasto Lorde gathered then they had no chance of victory, so they picked them off one by one, unable to kill us but seal us."

Mayuri scoffed, catching his fellow Captains attention. "Are you having a laugh? The Nine Lords are a myth, a bedtime story parents tell annoying brats to make them eat their food and go to bed. Nine Lords, don't make me laugh boy."

"Boy?" The blond looked up at Mayuri, and the density of the spiritual pressure became visible as a mass of bubbling crimson. "You have the audacity to call me a _boy_? Do not test me you young pup. I and my siblings had achieved the ultimate evolution before your great grandfather was a twinkle in your great great grandmother's eye."

Byakuya felt a chill run down his spine at the words. He had also heard of the story of the Nine Hollow Lords, according to legend they were the mothers and fathers of Menos Grande, the first to reach such heights of power and savagery. Mayuri looked like he was about to gag, drawing his form back as if he had tasted something foul.

_- I and my siblings – _

_- Unable to kill us but seal us –_

"Are you saying," Byakuya began, noticing that the 12th Division Captain began to take in shaky breathes. "That you are one of the Nine Lords of Hueco Mundo?"

The man grinned at him, a toothy, predatory grin. "So there is a brain amongst you three."

"Which one are you?" Byakuya asked, hand now on his Zanpakuto. "You cannot be the Second, Fifth or Seventh Lord. They were all female Hollows if I remember the tail."

"Ah yes," Naruto spun around, hands outstretched, wicked grin still in place. "Yugito-chan, whose beauty was only matched by the sharpness of her claws, Rin-chan, how gorgeous she was when she howled at the moon. She was always at her best on those full moon nights. Fu-chan, whose voice was as haunting as it was stunning."

"Yugito the crimson claw, Rin of the bloody moon and Fu of the ruby wings," Mayuri muttered, only to hear a smash of laughter from the supposed Lord.

"I can see the Soul Society has vilified even those three maidens. I suppose victory really is written by the victors, eh?" He stopped spinning and bowed majestically. "My name is Naruto Uzumaki, and I am the Ninth Lord."

Their expressions were hilarious. Byakuya's eyes widened until they were the size of saucers, Mayuri was completely silent, though he looked like he had swallowed something sour. The most interesting was from Kenpachi, who didn't seem worried in the slightest, if anything he looked disappointed. "Oh, I suppose that means you're the weakest huh?"

A smile spread across the bowing blonds' face as he raised his head and straightened his posture. "You obviously don't know our story do you? Let me educate you, son. It's not the number one Lord who is the strongest. The number of strength goes from one to nine, not nine to one."

His form once again dissolved into the air, and Kenpachi felt hot breath against the shell of his ear. "So by that logic that makes me the strongest."

The Combat Captain spun around, lashing out with his sword in a horizontal swing only to hit nothing but air. Naruto was standing, calm and serene, watching as the tip of the jagged blade passed mere millimetres away from the bridge of his nose. In a blur he was within Zaraki's defences and with a face which showed no emotion hit his opponent with a simple palm thrust to the chest. It was enough to send the 11th Division Captain flying through the air, impacting against a dune with enough force to kick up a mass of sand.

Naruto felt a sudden shift in the air, and bringing up his right hand caught the blade of another Zanpakuto, this one belonging to Kuchiki, who had decided to perform one of his signature Shunpo combinations. The blond grinned as he looked up at the 6th Division Captain.

"Senka, huh?" Uzumaki tilted his head, grin not leaving. "A special Shunpo technique where one moves to their opponents back, aiming for the Saketsu and Hakusui points and sealing an opponent's spiritual pressure with a single stroke. It is so fast that most victims aren't aware whether they've been stabbed in the front or the back, right?"

"How do you know this?"

"I fought an opponent who utilised that same technique." Naruto's grin became vicious. "It cost him dearly when he tried to use it against me a second time."

In the blink of an eye Byakuya was flying, smashing into the ground hard and skidding to a halt. The supposed Lord of Hueco Mundo stood impassive, right leg held up as if imitating a high kick. He took a deep breath and brought the leg down again, smirk returning. "I remember Captain's being tougher than this."

He spun as a trident like weapon with three serpentine blades passed by him. In a single fluent motion he continued his spin, bringing him across and behind the third and final Captain as he continued to lunge on his own momentum. Mayuri's eyes kept the blond within sight before he too was felled by an open palmed strike to his back. He was literarily thrown off his feet, limbs flailing, hitting the ground several meters away and skidding several more to a stop.

"Humph, young pups," Naruto scowled as he looked at his hand, curling it up into a fist as he flexed his muscles. There was a satisfying creak. "The Kuchiki had some finesse, but the other two lacked any tact."

Suddenly the dune where he sent the first Captain exploded in a mass of released spiritual pressure, so much that it made the Ninth Lord look up and take notice. The spiritual pressure, visible as a mass of yellow suddenly made the blond grin and the maniacal, loud, howling laughter was like music to his ears.

"No tact, but a lot of energy to burn." Naruto grinned ferociously as he watched Kenpachi Zaraki. "Looks like I judged a little too soon. This is more like a Captain."

"Bankai!"

Naruto looked around in time to see a massive creature rise up from the desert sands. It reminded him of a caterpillar, except for the golden, bulbous head which looked an awful lot like a baby, with eyes without pupils or sclera, just dead whites, and purple marking which looked like unshed tears under its eyes. A red cape was tied around its neck. A halo hovered over its head, and he heard a ringing of bells somewhere on its huge, terrifying visage. The voice of the 12th Division Captain echoed through the huge fortress.

"Konjiki Ashisogi Jizō!"

"Yes," Naruto's already ferocious grin warped into something monstrous. "Yes this is more like a Captain!"

* * *

For the longest time she had slept through this hell, this nothing. Her last memory of freedom was flying, flying and fighting before she was soundly defeated. The woman scoffed at the word defeat, for her enemies had won by sheer force of numbers. One on one she could have taken any one of them, but three of them decided to fight her at once.

The last thing she remembered of freedom was lying on the sand, beaten, bloodied and broken. The taste of copper was overwhelming in her mouth, her long hair cut free from its bindings, covering her face and the ground around her head like a messy halo. She wasn't able to lift her hand to defend herself. She had been spent, spent and defenceless as their leader, the strongest of them all had muttered the incantation, binding her to this confined space deep beneath the endless dunes she loved to run through.

For the longest time she had tried to escape from this prison through sheer force. She would punch and kick and scream for long spans of time until her throat was raw and her muscles protested even the slightest movement. She would wait until her strength returned before beginning the whole cycle over and over again.

The most heart wrenching memory though was how close she had come to making it to her strongest sibling's fortress, just out of his sight. If she had made it to within his gaze he would have come out and rescued her. The relationship between the two of them was a complicated one, as could be the same for the relationship between the group of individuals which were the Nine Lords.

Together the two of them could have made a better fight of it. She knew that when he was finally defeated that he had hurt the enemy far more than she did and even during those years where she fought her imprisonment in vein that one fact gave her satisfaction. Eventually she just stopped trying, and decided to sleep the millennia away until either she died or the seal failed.

Time slipped past. She didn't know how much. Then she felt an unbridled power, and besides her bodies protests she managed a weak smile. The Ninth Lord, her eldest and most powerful brother had finally broken free from his cage in tremendous fashion, and as usual he had overdone it. She felt his power flow across the desert sands like a tsunami, and that feeling gave her hope which she had lost many eons ago.

Then a powerful wave of his power swept across her seal and she saw hairline cracks appearing before her. She looked at them for an eternity before a smile slowly spread across wrinkled flesh. The seal had been damaged by her siblings release and perhaps with just the right amount of pressure she could...

She gathered her spiritual pressure, a great well of power which had not been used in millennia, but slowly built up until it was bursting at the seams. Three thousand years of power was at her fingertips, begging for a release. She took a deep breath and released.

A blade of bubbling azure spiritual pressure exploded from the largest sand dune for countless kilometres around, sliding up and piercing the cloudless sky like a blade. Hollows all around felt the sudden power and fled in a panic.

She stood wobbling in the centre of the sand dune, which had been crushed and turned into a crater beneath her shrivelled feet. The old woman, dressed in rags with long scraggly hair pooling onto the sand looked around, took a deep breath and released her spiritual pressure to its fullest. Her appearance changed.

The long scraggily white hair immediately became healthy, turning light blonde before being cut by a simple flick of her wrist. What remained was a mane of wild straw blonde hair which fell down to her lower back. Another flick of the wrist and the delicate strands tied across each other into a braid. Her skin changed from flaccid wrinkles to pale, unblemished and toned skin. The rags just giving her modesty changed to white and black clothes, pants, a high collared jacket and mesh armoured shirt which showed an impressive bust and hour glass figure.

She stretched, emitting a feline purr of satisfaction as she felt every muscle protest and bones pop to the movement after several thousand years of misuse. That done she looked in the direction of the spiritual pressure, and with a smile took off in that direction.

After three thousand years of imprisonment Yugito Nii was free.

* * *

Dusting his hands off with an audible sigh Naruto looked over the partially destroyed landscape, and at the two panting Captains standing before him. Kenpachi Zaraki was taking in huge gulps of air, but he was still grinning like a madman and was still holding onto his sword. Mayuri Kurotsuchi was doubling over in pain, left arm blown away up to the shoulder and blood pooling onto the pale sand. His bankai was still active, and was even now disgorging a mass of strange coloured mist from its mouth.

The mad scientist grit his teeth as he fought through the pain and with a snap of his wrist sent Konjiki Ashisogi Jizō on a collision course, smashing through the sands with its mouth open and disgorging even more poisonous gases. Naruto tilted his head to the side, pondering, before shrugging his shoulders and straightening his right hand.

He brought his hand up in a vertical slashing motion, as if the limb were a broadsword which he was wielding. A blade of condensed crimson lashed out across the landscape, cutting Konjiki Ashisogi Jizō perfectly in half in a mass of flying blood and ripped apart cartilage. The blade didn't stop with the Bankai either, but continued on towards the two Captains hiding behind it.

Kenpachi saw it coming and dodged to the side, but Mayuri wasn't as lucky. He was barely able to move to his right before the blade sliced off another chunk of flesh from his hip all the way up to the muscles between his shoulder and neck. The mad Captain screamed in agony, before levelling a hated glare at the Vasto Lorde who so effortlessly ripped through his Bankai.

"Damn you," he growled through gnashing teeth. "Curse you, you insect. Do you really think this is the end of me? Do you truly believe you have won!"

"If I'm an insect," a voice from behind him spoke, causing the mad Captain to freeze, eyes widening as the form before them just disintegrated into dust. "Then I would guess I'm a spider, and you're a delicate little fly caught in my web."

He spun around just in time for a straightened hand to pierce through his chest and exit his back in a shower of blood. He was just able to see the blond haired Vasto Lorde grin victoriously at him before he blacked out. With no effort he snapped his arm, sending the now limb body colliding hard with the ground. "Come to my web said the spider to the fly."

Naruto didn't give the prone body another look. Instead he set his sights on the second Captain who had challenged him. Kenpachi was grinning in an insane manner which would match his own wicked grin and his unsheathed sword was leaning against his broad right shoulder.

"Aren't you going to run?" Naruto asked wryly with a raised brow.

"Nah," the Captain replied nonchalantly with a shrug of his shoulders. "But you could if you want to, don't let me stop you."

Naruto should have taken that as an offence, but instead his grin widened until it stretched from ear to ear. "You are definitely my favourite brand of person to fight, a shit load of energy and not even remotely afraid of death."

His grin was mirrored by the towering man, "Death, who gives a shit about death. I'm in heaven right now, my own personal nirvana. I've finally met someone worthy of fighting!"

His spiritual pressure exploded then, a mass of yellow flames that seemed to sap all light from the surrounding sky. Naruto looked up with a feral grin as this man's spiritual pressure gave birth to the form of a screaming human skull. "I'm honoured, but why don't you release your Shikai, or better yet your Bankai, and then we can really get this party rolling!"

"Shikai, Bankai?" Zaraki asked before throwing his head back and laughed hard. "I would love too, sadly my sword isn't very talkative, don't even know the bastards name!"

"Damn man, that really blows." The blonde replied. "All of this power without even knowing the name of your sword. Why don't you go away, learn your swords name and then come back and face me. I would even clear my schedule for such a confrontation."

"Nah I ain't the type of guy to just back down and run away, not when there's such a strong guy to kill." As if to amplify his statement he lashed out with his sword and a tide of spiritual pressure exploded from the blade, heading straight towards his foe. Naruto watched the blade of energy closing in without batting an eye and with a simple swipe of his hand deflected it. The yellow blade of energy hit and exploded against a large dune, sending sand flying.

"Hmm," Naruto muttered as he shook his hand. "That actually stung a little. I like you man, I really like you and as a gift for actually making me feel a little pain I will face you on even terms."

He reached out with his right hand and a sheathed katana came into being, almost as if it was born from the air itself, and what a beautiful weapon it was. The hilt and sheath were covered in criss-crossed black and crimson cloth, two strands flailing in the wind. The hilt was shaped like a curved shuriken and the blade radiated power. He gripped the weapon with both hands, one on the hilt while the other was on the sheath and slowly drew the weapon with a scrape of metal. The blade seemed to be made of liquid silver, shining magnificently in the daylight.

Zaraki laughed with barely contained glee. The weapon had its own power, seemingly doubling his opponent's spiritual pressure just by being unsheathed. It was beautiful. It was magnificent. It was completely and utterly ruthless. Bubbling crimson spiritual pressure slid along the Vasto Lorde's form and his sword, and when the creature opened his eyes they had gone from brilliant azure to bloody crimson, slit pupils and even the whites of his eyes bled black. He spoke, voice a guttural growl which held nothing but utter bloodthirsty joy and mirth. "You ready?"

Kenpachi Zaraki grinned like a madman, gripping his nameless Zanpakuto in a two handed grip, mirrored perfectly by his opponents. Yellow and crimson spiritual pressures were already pushing against each other, draining the surrounding area of all light and life, a true battle between titans. "Oh yes."

They walked a few steps, and then increased their pace to a jog, then a run. In perfect synchrony the two old combatants raised their swords above their heads, ready for downward strokes. Feral grins mirrored on their faces and immortalised in their memories. Then they were upon each other, and in a flash both swords came crashing down.

The release of spiritual pressure from the combined strikes was enormous, an explosion which flattened dunes and destroyed surrounding structure. The yellow and crimson spiritual pressures mixed and merged in a beautiful cacophony of unbridled destruction. When the dust cleared the land for a hundred meters in every direction had turned into a colossal crater with the two combatants in the centre.

Their backs were to each other, easily three to four steps apart, grins still held on each of their faces, hands still gripping their katana in basic kendo stances. Seconds passed before the victor was shown. Kenpachi Zaraki, Captain of the 11th Shinigami Court Guard Division fell to his knees, a diagonal slash carved along his chest. Blood dribbled down the corners of his mouth, but his grin held.

"Beaten huh?"

The blond didn't answer for the longest time, "Yea."

"But not dead."

"I don't want you to die." Naruto replied as he turned around, relaxing his stance and removing the blood from his sword with a simple flick of his wrist. The crimson liquid spattered against the flattened sand. "I want you to leave this place and get stronger, learn Shikai, learn _BANKAI_, come back here and face me again."

Zaraki laughed, spitting out a large gob of blood. "I look forward... too... it."

He fell face first onto the sand.

Naruto looked down at his fallen opponent, and grinned, "Yea, me too."

He walked, leaving his fallen foe behind, scaling the small hills of the crater in a matter of moments. Once he was on flat land again he looked around, searching for his next target. That was two Captains down, but where was the third. His blow couldn't have been that serious.

"Ban - kai."

Ah, there he was.

Darkness fell and blades slid from said darkness as if they were piercing the surface of a still pond. He could make out the ripples as they expanded and merged. The blades which rose to the infinite black reminded him of an honour guard, or a funeral procession. He turned to lock eyes with the Kuchiki, who held his now bladeless hilt in front of his chest in a military like salute.

"Senbonzakura Kageyoshi."

"Bankai," Naruto let the word leave his tongue, savouring the power it held, before allowing a grin to once again form, "Bankai, yes, definitely the Bankai of a Kuchiki. This is more like it."

He fell into a stance, sword held in one hand while the sheath formed on his other, held in a backwards grip. Naruto watched with rising respect as millions of cherry blossoms seemed to form from the air itself, all coming together in a single huge, writhing mass, a stunning and nostalgic sight, reminding him of images of a beautiful girl with pink hair and dazzling green eyes.

Yes, such a beautiful sight.

* * *

It had been a while.

Three thousand years had indeed passed since he felt this presence, this aura, this power. It had been even longer since he had felt this suffocating layer of spiritual pressure descend on not just him but the whole of the domain, heck he would be surprised if the shockwaves of his release hadn't been felt at the other side of Hueco Mundo.

Yes, it had been a while.

Then he had felt another familiar presence, breaking free soon after the shockwaves of the first had died down. He felt _her_ power next, and knew that their long imprisonment was coming to an abrupt end. Like a row of dominos falling one after the other, a true chain reaction on a large scale.

He knew his time had come the moment he saw a crack appear on his seal, right before his eyes as if he was watching a pane of glass slowly cave in under the pressure. With a single aged hand he pressed against it and released. A golden pillar of spiritual pressure shattered the shell shocked seal and he rose from his sarcophagus.

The sand answered his subconscious command, immediately swirling around him like a tornado of miniscule particles. His long white hair became dark red, skin tightened and firmed, limbs regained old muscles long lost to misuse and decay. Basic clothes covered his once rag covered form, a simple white shirt, scarf and pants all flowing with the gale force winds.

He reached out with his spiritual pressure, feeling a total of six additional presences. One was unmistakably his sister, racing towards the epicentre. The other five were all clumped together in the direction of the old fortress. Three were Shinigami, low to mid Captain level, another felt strange, like a mixture of Shinigami and Hollow, and the final one felt like a Hollow, definitely his brother by the way he kept his spiritual pressure contained.

He always held back against the enemy.

The Lord took a deep breath and allowed the tornado to subside.

Gaara opened his eyes and looked over the desert sands of Hueco Mundo before taking off in a blur of motion so fast dust rose from where he treaded. He felt his sister already on the move, well ahead of him in her travelling to the source of the disturbance which had freed them.

Only one person was so powerful that he could accidentally undo ancient seals.

Naruto was up and about and was in the middle of a brawl.

The strange bastardised presence was already dormant, meaning he had been beaten into unconsciousness, and while he was running he felt one of the Shinigami fall dormant as well. The Ninth Lord had already incapacitated two of his four opponents.

There was defeating an enemy and then there was just showing off.

Maybe if he increased his speed he could make it before his brother destroyed everything. That was doubtful though. His sister had a good head start, to good for him to beat. Once she got there the two of them would completely annihilate whoever the enemy was.

His memories of the time when he was sealed were sketchy. All he recalled was facing a small group of men wearing black Shihakusho uniforms with katana strapped to their sides. He had attempted to fight but was surprised and quickly surrounded. All he remembered was pain and agony as his strength was sealed, then he was left there, seeing all around him fall into anarchy while he was unable to stop it.

Hueco Mundo went to the dogs the moment their guiding hands were removed. Their last few children had slowly died off one after the other, leaving behind mindless Hollows who went as they pleased. In time it seemed that the evolutionary chain would slowly create replacements, but that never happened.

That would soon change.

But first he needed to expel the Shinigami from this place, and as he felt the second Shinigami presence go dark he knew the action would be over before he arrived, by how quickly his brother was knocking around his opponents he considered it might be over even before his sister arrived.

Or maybe not, the last one felt strong.

Gaara smiled.

It was a good day to be free, a very good day.

* * *

_**Glossary**_

_Bankai – Final Release_

_Hakusui – Soul Sleep_

_Konjiki Ashisogi Jizō – Golden Leg Cutting Jizō_

_Saketsu – Soul Binding_

_Senbonzakura Kageyoshi – Vibrant Display of a Thousand Cherry Blossoms_

_Senka – Flash Blossom_

_Shikai – Initial Release_

_Shinigami – Death God_

* * *

_Arrancar – Ripped Mask/To Rip off_

_Cero – Hollow Flash/Zero_

_Espada – Ten Blades/Sword_

_Hueco Mundo – Hollow Sphere/Hollow World_

_Vasto Lorde – Highest Great Hollow_

* * *

_**Author's Note 1: **__Okay, so I finished this chapter quite some time ago, but completely forgot about it and left it in the backburner. Sorry about that folks, so here it is. Updates for this story will not be consistent. They may takes a few months at a time._

_**Author's Note 2: **__On a secondary note I am thoroughly surprised by the amount of response this story has received. Honestly it was just this little idea I've had in my head since, like, forever, lol. Seriously though, thank you everyone. On a side note the title, Think of me as the Talking Air, is a silent show of respect to Baccano, an awesome anime based in America in the 1930's, seriously the Mafia, Immortals, Alchemists, blood and awesomeness throughout._

_**Author's Note 3: **__A few people have pointed out that the Gobi is wrong, and my answer is that I just don't like either the Gobi Biju or Han the Jinchuriki. I envisioned a wolf when I first thought of the other tailed beasts, and another girl in the group is sorely needed considering we only have one confirmed female, who is deceased (I hate you Kishimoto!), and the author seems to be wondering if he should make Fu a girl or just make another really feminine male. Sometimes I really worry about the guy. Every awesome female in his Manga who wasn't in the original cast is dead! (Yugito, Konan, not looking good for Samui, Anko's survival is iffy at best... I'm beginning to worry about the Mizukage. There's a good character for Masashi to redeem himself on the strong heroine front (Do not mess this up!))._


	3. Flaming Cherry Blossoms

_**Chapter 2**_

_**Flaming Cherry Blossoms**_

His speed was phenomenal. The mass of pink blossoms would rise up like a great maw, ready to devour this human form Hollow within its bladed depths. Byakuya Kuchiki, Captain of the 6th Company stood in the centre of a tattered hurricane of cherry blossoms, feet spread, body coiled, white scarf billowing in the wind, and hands outstretched as if he were signalling his Bankai where to go, where to strike and Senbonzakura Kageyoshi followed his commands without hesitancy, flowing like a beautiful writhing cloud of death.

The Ninth Lord watched this display as he moved faster than the eye could detect, faster than anything Hueco Mundo had ever seen in millennia. Every time it looked like the swarm of pink petals were about to envelope him he would vanish from their grasp and reappear a safe distance away, feet not once touching the ground since the battle began. He was a wraith, a phantom, a ghost in the eternally dark skies.

He was too fast for this Bankai to catch, even with every elaborate trap the Kuchiki pulled from his impressive arsenal. Every trap was quickly and efficiently evaded. Yet every time the Lord attempted to strike the cherry blossoms would retreat and rise in defence of their wielder, creating an impenetrable wall which cut any who attempted to break through.

It reminded Naruto of his fellow sibling Gaara's ultimate defence of sand, except instead of this defence piercing or crushing the attacker it sliced almost microscopic cuts into the skin and if one was caught and swallowed by this Bankai then there was no chance of coming out of it unscathed.

He reappeared twenty meters above the ground, ducking a scythe shaped mass of petals, sidestepping another and then disappearing in another Sonido when the real cloud of danger presented itself. He blurred above it, outstretched hand already firing a midlevel cero into the crimson swarm. They scattered like a shoal of fish would a predator, reforming and coming at him again.

Naruto blurred, climbing another twenty feet in less than a millisecond before firing a stronger cero, watching as the outcome remained the same. This stalemate between them was becoming troublesome. He spun around, stretching his hand out to fire yet another cero at the wielder, watching as the mass of cherry blossoms representing Senbonzakura Kageyoshi rose up in defence of their master.

Naruto tilted his head, grinning slightly as he held out his hand and allowed his sword, this time completely unsheathed to appear on his palm. He coiled his body slightly before swinging the weapon in a wide arc, the movement creating a blade of bubbling crimson spiritual pressure to lance forth. The blade slammed into the defence, and for a moment the amassed petals seemed to almost buckle before the energy behind the attack gave out.

A little more power and he should be able to pierce it.

The sakura petals surrounded and encompassed him then, using his distraction to take full advantage. They sliced through his skin and clothing like thousands of razor sharp blades, cutting and hacking and slicing. There was an explosion of blood and gore which covered the white sands and through it all he heard the Kuchiki's voice.

"You underestimated me, Uzumaki Naruto."

"Oh," he replied, now thirty meters above the now startled Kuchiki, hands together to keep hold of the monumental power of a Gran Rey Cero. The ultimate cero sparked and writhed in his hands, its electric blue light so different from the usual dark crimson. Within moments he had compressed this ultimate strike into a small ball no larger than his hand before throwing it the same way one would throw a baseball. "I don't know about that."

Byakuya Kuchiki raised his hand and Senbonzakura Kageyoshi answered his call with impressive speed, amassing into a thick wall of a thousand cherry coloured petals just as the fist sized ball impacted. In that moment the energy released, but there was no sound of an explosion, just a piercing white light that sapped the darkness away.

When the light finally faded Byakuya Kuchiki stood, arms held in front of him, palms of his hands charred and smoking. The writhing mass of his Bankai in front of him were nothing more than a burning mass of dead black petals falling to the sands. His stony expression remained in place though, and the Ninth Lord had to give him respect for not letting his pain show.

"Hmm, maybe next time I should add a little more power to it." Naruto mused as the Shinigami Captain made a chopping motion with his hand and the swarm of petals began their attack anew, only faster. Their sudden burst of speed surprised the Hollow before he used his own blurring speed to get out of the way.

"So if he uses his hands his attacks are twice as fast." Naruto muttered, reappearing thirty meters away and seeing that the blades were still coming, getting faster with each moment. If this kept up the petals would eventually get him, and he couldn't have that. He performed yet another Sonido, this time using all of his speed and agility.

Byakuya's eyes shifted to look behind him when he felt the Hollows spiritual-pressure reappear, no warning and no trail. He simply vanished from sight and reappeared, so fast that he might as well have teleported. His sword was in his hand again, which was held in preparation for a horizontal arc. "Sorry boy, but this is the end game."

The Kuchiki spun around just as Naruto swung his sword, reaching out with his hand to catch the blade which left a light gash along his palm, blood flowed from the wound, coating the blade and dripping from his hand. Naruto frowned as he looked on, confused, before he felt the spiritual pressure of his opponent double, and then triple. Quickly he jumped back, landing in a crouch, sword still in hand.

"Uzumaki Naruto, known as the Ninth Lord, but also the Firstborn, King of Foxes, Grand Emperor of Hollows and Keeper of Hueco Mundo. It is said that your power is capable of levelling mountains and creating devastating tsunamis, an unstoppable force and an unmovable object all in one." Azure blue met dark brown and held. "I can see that the stories are true if you are capable of fighting me even when my Bankai is released, but that ends here."

Once again the thousands upon thousands of pink petals rose up, but this time not in defence of their master and not to attack him, instead they collided together, forming a huge dome around the two combatants before disintegrating and reforming all around them into a truly awe inspiring sight, one that Naruto knew he would never forget until his dying breath.

Swords

Hundreds of swords

Line after line of swords, creating from the innumerable mass of sakura petals came into existence, forming together to form the very dome like object he saw at the beginning. Each sword had the basic design of a well crafted katana, and the power emanating from each of them was truly impressive, not something to be struck with. These swords surrounded the two combatants in four rows, one on top of the other. For the first time in this fight the Ninth Lord wandered if he was capable of dodging them all.

"_Senkei Senbonzakura Kageyoshi,_" the Kuchiki declared, reaching out with his bloodied hand in time to catch the handle of one of these blades. The pink spiritual pressure condensed before becoming an exact replica of the same sword the Shinigami used before he released his Bankai, a beautifully crafted blade, simple in its craftsmanship. "This is what happens to Senbonzakura when I completely change my strategy from defence to completely killing my enemy. You are the third person to ever see this stage."

Naruto was now completely serious, all traces of mirth gone as he continued to stare into the Kuchiki's unyielding gaze. "I am honoured, truly. I might really have to work to be able to dodge all of these blades."

"Don't worry," The Shinigami replied with a simple shake of his head. "These one thousand blades are simply your funeral procession. They will not attack you all at once."

"Good to hear," Naruto grinned, pointing his sword right at the waiting form of Kuchiki Byakuya. "Let's get started then."

Both vanished in a duo of blurs, coming together in a speed too quick for the eye to make out, sparks flew as the two blades met with a fierce velocity, bubbling crimson and calm blue battling each other for control of this space just as their two masters continued the battle.

* * *

It wasn't hard to follow his spiritual pressure, even someone completely unable to sense such things would be aware of the ominous aura which filled the air. Las Noches had changed, was the first thing Yugito realised as she raced across the sands at almost ten times the speed of sound. The once modest yet aesthetically pleasing fort had been replaced by a huge and gaudy dome, tall spires stabbing out as if trying to pierce the sky.

She smiled thinly, knowing full well that her eldest and strongest sibling would not be pleased with such a drastic change from his ancient castle. He was never one to live in such massive creations. Naruto had always considered his fortress to be the home of himself and his chosen. At its height his home had been as large as a small settlement, but this thing was large enough to be considered a city.

Then again the differences in their opinions was radical, while Naruto enjoyed a grounded place for him to live it was a different story for Yugito. The Second Lord had always been a wanderer from the day she regained her mind until the day she was imprisoned in that coffin of sekiseki rock, travelling the endless deserts of Hueco Mundo with her chosen.

She hopped, skipped and then jumped, soaring through the rietsu thick air over the large fortress and looking down at what she saw from her bird's eye view. There had been quite the battle inside this fortress, such a battle that it had spilled into the outside world. The huge crevice shaped scar running along the top of the dome was proof of this, as was the black scorch marks and wreckage. The scent of discharged spiritual pressure, both Shinigami and Hollow alike was thick in the air, almost palpable to her still recovering senses.

Yugito's feline eyes looked down through the broken ceiling to see nothing but white desert sand, a few structures of sekiseki rock scattered about, but other than that it was sand. What was the point in building such a huge structure when most of its interior was left barren? Shrugging her shoulders the blonde was about to dive through the hole.

Naruto seemed to be having a little trouble with the last Shinigami, not surprising considering the buffoon went to battle the moment he broke from his seal. Yugito had broken out of hers a few moments after him, and she guessed her power was only at around fifty percent of what it had been. The same could be said for her eldest brother, because she had felt him destroy opponents with twice the spiritual pressure of the one he was currently fighting.

Drastically she changed her course, bringing her in a steep dive towards the opening between outside world and interior of fortress. She shot through the hole without a second thought and came to an abrupt stop twenty meters down, surveying the area before looking up at the ceiling, frowning as she did.

The landscape was a mess of cratered ground and half destroyed structure, dispensed spiritual pressure hung in the air like a repressive cloud, barely contained by the now breached shell of sekiseki rock surrounding the fortress. She looked up and frowned, noticing that the interior surface of the barrier was made to look like a daytime sky in either the human world or the soul society, complete with the white wisps of clouds.

Forgetting about the surrounding scenery she submerged herself in the spiritual pressure, searching through the masses of alien presences until she found the one she was looking for, the only familiar spiritual pressure in this fortress. She was away like a shot, moving beyond the speed of sound to become nothing more than a shapeless blur as she tore through the landscape until she found her destination.

What she saw was a domed object, quite large and as dark as the darkest abyss yet she felt the clashing spiritual pressures of the Ninth Lord and the Shinigami Captain battling within. With a gliding finesse she stepped on a large flat piece of debris several dozen meters away, testing its weight to make sure it was well grounded into the sand before sitting down to wait.

Knowing her elder like she did Yugito was sure he would not appreciate her intervention. He was just the kind of person who wished to fight his own battles himself and not get others involved unless it was a moment of absolute necessity.

So she sat down and waited, leaning back to lie on the flat slab and enjoy the small things about being free. The cool, crisp wind was a welcome comfort to the many millennia of stale air, softly caressing her face and blowing through her long straw blonde hair.

She missed this feeling, the touch of the wind.

* * *

Naruto brought his blade down with such force that it sliced straight through the Rietsu made blade of the Shinigami Captain, the weapon disintegrating in shards of pink light. Byakuya was forced to flash away from his opponent, raising his hand to allow yet another sword to soar into his waiting fist.

A flick of his wrist and four more fell with blurring speed, three missed the blond haired Vasto Lorde but the fourth hit its mark, missing his leg but impaling into his right foot. The Hollow ground his teeth, yet pulled the blade out and threw it away with swiftness. Byakuya had to admit he was impressed by the Hollows pain threshold, especially with his Bankai in this advanced stage. _Senbonzakura Kageyoshi _not only turned his spiritual pressure into blades but also increased their potential power significantly.

Anyone less would have lost a foot.

But he was wearing the Lord down, managing to hit him with blade after blade of spiritual pressure, most of the wounds were superficial, deep cuts and stabs to non-vital areas but he was definitely wearing the Hollow down.

Another Shunpo brought him face to face with the Hollow lord, and just as the two blades met Byakuya brought his free hand up, catching the falling blade with ease and plunging it into the Hollows leg. Naruto hissed in pain, finally falling to a knee but was still fast enough to bring his sword up to block Kuchiki's swing.

He saw his chance and forming a cero with his free hand slammed it into the Shinigami's torso, watching with a grim look as it shredded through clothing, skin, bone cartilage and organs with frightening ease. A beam of dark crimson exploded from the Shinigami's back, blasting through the dark shell and into the upper atmosphere of Las Noches.

The only problem was that there was no body anymore, the Shinigami just seemed to be there one moment and gone the next. Naruto saw this coming, knowing that there was no way a Shinigami of this man's calibre would fall so easily. He knew the man was behind him, unharmed from that deadly point blank strike, ready to pierce him.

Naruto vanished from sight courtesy of a Sonido, reappearing behind the stoic Captain yet he found himself once again face to face with him. A finger was pressing against the nap of his neck, and the Ninth Lord was aware of him uttering a few words.

"_Hadō 4:__Byakurai_"

A bolt of condensed lightning pierced straight through Naruto's collar bone, exploding forth much the same way as his cero did before. The blast pierced the eternal black walls before dissipating in Las Noches' upper atmosphere. Naruto staggered back, hacking and gasping before vanishing from sight.

Byakuya's eyes widened at the empty space before falling back to their bored norm. He knew exactly where the Hollow would attack from and with the briefest of glances five blades came rushing down from the funeral columns surrounding them. He heard the sounds of metal piercing flesh and several grunts of pain.

He turned to see the Ninth Lord bent over, gasping for air as blood ran unimpeded down his frame, dousing his clothing in the crimson liquid. Each of the five blades had hit their mark with armour piercing force. The first went right into his shoulder blade, biting deeply enough to break through the bone and into his body, another in his back, another piercing straight through his left leg, another into his right foot down to the hilt, and finally the fifth blade through his abdomen, at an angle, exiting above his tail bone.

"I am amazed that you can still stand, most would be dead from those wounds," Byakuya stated in his same stoic tone, raising his hand to allow a sixth blade to soar into it. He levelled the weapon, bladed tip against Naruto's throat. "This is the end. You have indeed proved yourself as a Lord of Hueco Mundo, go to your grave knowing that."

He stopped short when he heard it, beginning as a croak from the Hollows throat, it slowly morphed into a chuckle, then a laugh, then a howl of laughter, blood spattered from his mouth yet he did not seem to care. He rose up, his crimson life fluid dyeing the sand at his feet red with blood.

"I'm disappointed in myself." Naruto stated as he finally calmed down. "I honestly thought I could go longer than this, but I suppose I don't have a choice. I'll give you a parting gift Shinigami, but be mindful of my warning."

The whisker like scars on his cheeks became dark and ominous, looking more like crevices. His canines elongated into full fangs, glistening and sharper than a razor. His finger nails snapped and elongated into wickedly sharp claws. It was his eyes that caught Byakuya's attention. When he opened his eyes they weren't the azure blue he had become accustomed too. They became vulpine, sclera morphing to the colour of blood. Pupils' becoming sharp sickles and black seemingly bleeding into the whites of his eyes.

"Only the spirit king has seen this form and lived," his voice was a guttural snarl, beyond human or Hollow and the spiritual pressure became visible as a cloak of bubbling crimson. "_Rip the world asunder-"_

* * *

First there was the power, permeating the very air.

Doubling

Tripling

Quadrupling

Yugito smiled as nostalgia hit her, and breathed it in as if it were much needed oxygen.

How long had it been since she felt this?

How long since she felt this unbridled strength?

This hidden power whose reserves were deeper than the deepest oceans?

This hidden power whose reserves were higher than the highest mountains?

This hidden power which would make even a god stand-up and take notice?

"How long has it been since you last released your true form?" she asked, knowing no one would be there to hear her but saying it just the same. She took another deep breath and released a sigh of contentment, leaning back and allowing her hands to take her weight. "How long since you looked up to the heavens themselves and roared your defiance?"

The dome of blackness, which held her eldest brother and his Shinigami adversary rippled as if it were the surface of a still lake, then crack's began to form along its frame, small at first but quickly growing longer and thicker like a pane of glass whose stress level was surpassed. The explosion which followed was magnificent. The dome of spiritual pressure blew apart, sending rapidly dissipating shards and debris of spiritual pressure in every direction.

Yugito moved fluently, almost naturally, performed a back flip and crouching behind the flattened slab of sekiseki as the missiles of debris soared and zipped past her. One large piece, growing smaller with every moment, vanishing like sand thrown into the air, slammed against the exact spot where she sat but a moment ago and continued its journey a bare half meter over her head.

Smiling with glee she looked over her protective barrier in a small hope to see him, the true him. The white smoke obscured all view, but it was quickly blown away to show a huge crater where the battle had been played out. Yugito hopped, skipped and then jumped high, landing in a graceful motion right at the edge of the crater, no, more like a ravine.

She saw but a glimpse of his true form. Nine long, sinewy tails flailed in the wind before disintegrating the very same way as the destroyed remnants of the Shinigami Bankai had vanished but a scant few moments before. The smoke gave way enough for her to see a lean muscular body encased in white carapace armour, which disintegrated much the same way as his nine magnificent tails.

The Shinigami lay on his side several meters away. His back was to her. His black Shihakusho was torn and ragged and his Zanpakuto was ripped from his grasp and was slowly regenerating to its sealed form several meters from the severely wounded Death Gods reach. He was still alive, Yugito noticed.

Naruto, now fully back in his sealed state, minus his clothes, looked a little sheepish as his eyes fell upon the fallen Shinigami. Yugito noticed that he had completely regenerated everything on his exceptional frame, from his leanly muscles shoulders and strong arms to his six-pack stomach and strong legs. She quickly took a peek to his nether regions, oh yes, everything was regenerated quite nicely.

"Hmm, I guess I overdid it." He walked over to the unmoving Shinigami and lightly tapped him with his bare foot. "You ain't dead are you?"

She heard the Shinigami cough, spitting out a glob of blood before undoubtedly levelling a glare at the strongest Hollow alive. Naruto didn't look nervous or scared by the glare, not in the slightest. If anything he grinned.

"There you go. You're just chockfull of piss and vinegar."

"What are you waiting for," the Shinigami asked in a severe, cold tone. "You defeated me, so kill me."

Naruto actually seemed to think about that. "Nah, to easy, instead I'm just going to toss you back to where you belong with a message to your Commander. I'm guessing it's that old bastard Yamamoto, right?"

"How do you know him?"

"He was a little fidgeting Vice-Captain of the King's Court last time I saw him." Naruto replied, though his voice didn't contain a trace of nostalgia nor mirth, if anything it was as cold as ice and twice as deadly. "I have to find and beat the crap out of him. He hurt someone I deeply care for see, and I can't allow him to just get by without one of her elder siblings giving him the beating of his life."

Yugito was in complete agreement, if Naruto wasn't able to then she would gladly take over that assignment. If she was not able to she knew another six people who would gladly take the role.

"Oi, Naruto!"

His head snapped in her direction, and his shock was immediately replaced by a grin, a full genuine grin which made her blush. "Yu-chan. You're up early."

She was about to reply, but before she could muster any sort of retort he flashed over to her, caught her and hugged her in a tight, fierce embrace. The movement was so sudden and unexpected that she lost her footing, about to fall to the ground with him clinging to her, but he moved quicker, spinning around in midair so he would hit the ground and she would land softly on him. They both landed with a small pillow of sand.

"You're a real sight for sore eyes," he said, kissing her a quick peck on the cheek and then wrapping her in a tighter embrace. "I missed you kitten."

Her rebuke died in her throat, indignant expression replaced by a soft, tender smile as she wrapped her arms around him and leaned her head against his chest, listening to his steady, rhythmic heartbeat. It had always had a calming effect on her, ever since he found her alone and half-dead in the desert, a sign that they were above and beyond the Hollows which they evolved from.

"I missed you to Kit."

They were like that for a while, both happy with nothing more than being in each other's company after so many millennia alone, both lost in the moment and happy to remain lost. Then it all ended. "Are you the only one up?"

An explosion, followed by a pillar of sand answered the question for her. Yugito looked up with narrowing eyes and a frown, while Naruto leaned back with a quizzical expression which slowly morphed into a full blown grin. Gaara appeared in the centre of the tornado as it dispersed and dissipated, looking down at the two of them with a quizzically raised brow.

"Interrupt something, did I? "

Yugito saw through his question a few moments sooner than Naruto, and gave a mischievous, sexy smirk. "Why yes, as a matter of fact. So if you would push off for a few moments we'll get all of this pent up tension out of the way."

Naruto didn't get it for a moment, and then he looked down to see that he was still naked. "Ah, I see. Give me a moment."

The blondes smirk turned into a slightly disappointed pout as she got off of him, "Maybe later."

Naruto rose, giving her a look which had a definite affirmative to it before snapping his fingers. A pair of baggy dark green pants and chainmail black shirt formed over his form, black sandals seemingly forming from the sand itself. A long trench-coat of eternal black was next to form, with black flames licking the hem and cuffs in a mass of reds, oranges and yellows. The blond smirked as he looked it over, thoroughly more satisfied with his new choice of attire than the dreary white and black he had made spur of the moment before.

"Much better," Naruto whooped as he cracked his neck muscles. "If anyone wants to change their colours now would be the best time."

Yugito was the first to change. She did nothing with her clothes physically, the baggy pants, chainmail shirt and thick bomber jacket remained the same, but the colour changed from whites and blacks to a deep dark azure with black trim. The chainmail became a chrome shade of gray and her sandals knee high black boots took on a shade of shimmering black, completing her look.

Gaara didn't even move as his clothes changed colour. The white and black buttoned shirt, pants and boots changing colour to a dark maroon with navy blue and faded green trim. His boots became the same shade of black as polished leather. A huge tanned gourd, his own personal choice of weapon, appeared on his back, held in place by straps and satchels. Sand rose from the sand, flowing into the container until it was full, then a cork materialised from the air and plugged the gourd shut.

Naruto grinned.

Yugito grinned.

Even Gaara allowed a small smile to grace his features.

"Ready to go to war," Naruto asked.

"Definitely," Yugito agreed.

"I could use some exercise," Gaara allowed.

There was a snarl, followed by the sound of a huge fist hitting the earth. All three Lords turned to see the giant of a Cero Espada, slowly rising to his feet, regaining his senses at long last. Naruto scowled at the creature, before turning back to Gaara, "Sorry for asking this but could you deal with him?"

The First Lord looked at him for a moment before shrugging and taking a step forward, the cork of his gourd popped open and sand spilled out, mingling with the white grains at his feet. "I suppose I can."

"That's the old _Emperor of the Eternal Sands_ I know."

"What about you two?"

"Don't worry about us," Naruto grinned, even as a small explosion of kicked up dust and sand made the arrival of a newcomer all the more abundantly clear. "We have a substitute."

The dust and sand settled quickly, dissipating to show the wrinkled features of their newest awakened. Hair the colour of dried blood and a beard, all shaggy and unkempt, was the first thing they noticed. His body was contained in a long sleeved dark purple shirt and baggy pants of the same colour. He also wore what looked like armour, a glistening black breast plate and gauntlets.

"Roshi," Naruto greeted with a vicious grin. "You're up earlier than I thought old man."

Roshi, Fourth Lord, grinned back, just as vicious, just as brutal. "Couldn't have you young upstarts having all the fun, could I?"

"I suppose not," Naruto replied before turning around as if to look at absolutely nothing. "Hmm, someone's been messing with the Garganta."

With lightning quickness his right hand seemed to pierce through the very air itself and twist sharply in a clockwise motion of a full ninety degrees. There was a moment of silence, and then the gateway between Hueco Mundo and the Human World opened. An outline in the air beside Naruto, appearing as a black mouth with molar teeth opened up beside him, easily big enough for all four of the Lords to walk through with room for their personal space.

Naruto nodded to himself before turning to Gaara, "You can handle him right?"

The First Lord gave him a withering glare.

"Alright then, try and finish him off quickly." Naruto grinned viciously. "We'll try and leave a few survivors for you."

Then they were gone. The Ninth, Fourth and Second Lords stepped through the Garganta and continued on even as the gateway closed up behind them. Gaara eyed the space for a few moments before turning but full attention back to the most powerful of the Espada, who was now fully lucid and glaring down upon him with bloodshot eyes.

Gaara sighed. The sand around him arose anew as a twisting, swirling tornado of will and power. His own spiritual pressure mingled and mixed with the very fabric of the sands all around him, and the First Lord took a deep breath as he savoured every moment of his reconnection to the endless white sands of Hueco Mundo.

"Let's make this quick, shall we."

It was a good day to be free.

* * *

_**Author's Note 1: **__Bleach and Naruto are the properties of Tite Kubo and Musashi Kishimoto respectively. I make no profit from posting this story. This is just my imagination running completely wild._

_**Author's Note 2: **__Right all my last few pieces of work for my final year are done, presentations were finished last week. After a month of coursework, exams and presentations, nine mental breakdowns and several sobbing sessions later it is all done, complete, finished... except for a resit in August but I won't worry about that quite yet._

_**Author's Note 3: **__The third chapter is up, and I hope you all have enjoyed reading it. I haven't even started the next one yet, but I have an idea of how it is going to be done, which is something at least._


	4. Welcome to the Dance of Death

_**Chapter 3**_

_**Welcome to the Dance of Death**_

The giant roared a thunderous sound which shook the very landscape with its great power. Gaara had to admit that he was impressed that a Hollow who had torn off his mask had gained so much strength. It was definitely nothing to laugh at.

"You're wasting your time." He sighed to himself. "Once these sands are under my control they can become as soft as a feather or as strong as steel."

His body up to his waist was encased in sand, burying his legs and stopping him from moving any closer or farther away from him. His huge clawed hands had suffered a similar fate, encased in sand all the way up just past his elbows. Yammy continued to struggle, but it was a wasted effort. There was nothing that could break through the sand when he put his full concentration into it. Only Naruto, Kirabi and Fu had the raw power to do it.

The mammoth Arrancar opened his maw, small dark red ball of a cero forming on the tip of his tongue. He fired, a powerful blast which appeared to suck the colour from the area, turning it into a mass of white light. The resulting blast left a mushroom shaped cloud forming in the exact place where Gaara had stood, rising higher and higher until it almost touched the scarred ceiling of the fortress.

"_**Take that, trash!"**_

No answer, not for a few seconds, it took several tense moments. Then the cloud cleared. The light returned to normal, leaving the blackened sand of ground zero laid out before him.

There was just one problem.

Where the First Lord once stood was a sphere made out of pure blackened sand, easily large enough to fit someone of his size into. The outer layer of sand was blackened by the strike, the surface sand burned to the point where it became jagged pieces of glass.

The ball opened as a flower would bloom, and sitting cross-legged on the platform was his opponent, completely unharmed and had the appearance of someone who was in a light meditation or sleep. The red haired Hollow opened his eyes, green orbs looking over the battleground right into the widened eyes of his opponent.

"Finished already?" he asked, voice a bored drawl as he spoke. The platform of sand descended, seemingly merging with the greater desert before he stood up, dusted himself off and set a bored gaze upon the strongest of the Espada. "As I have said power means nothing here, as long as I am here, surrounded by sand I cannot be defeated. Not even the Ninth Lord was able to defeat me on my home ground."

He stretched his hands out, and the sand exploded all around him into two streams of white, flowing around him like a miniature hurricane, faster and faster until they became blurs, then faster and faster until they formed a miniature twister. The sand streams dissipated, forming into a tornado of sand, ready to become a storm at the mental thought of its creator.

"If you are finished then I will begin." He pointed his right hand right at the Espada's face, between the eyes. "You probably won't survive this."

Yammy just starred, eyes widened and filled with an emotion he had not known for a long time. What was it? Anxiety, dread, fear... yes it was fear.

Something blurred across the wastes, appearing right in front of him and driving a two footed dropkick into his chin, breaking his jaw and sending him falling to the ground with a monumental explosion of sand as his body came to a stop. The perpetrator was sent flying by the recoil, but used the momentum to curl up her body, performing a trio of flawless somersaults before straightening herself out to land perfectly on the ground; feet together and arms stretched either side of her.

Gaara frowned at the newcomer, allowing his sand to fall away from the now unconscious enemy. "He was mine."

"You were taking too long." The woman replied dryly as she stood up and brushed a lock of turquoise green hair from her face.

"You've missed them," he replied, crossing his arms across his chest and starring right at the unwelcome presence of his sister. "Naruto, Yugito and Roshi have already moved on. If you want to catch up with them I would suggest you go now and leave my prey to me."

The woman smirked. "Three thousand years in a coffin has done nothing in removing the stick from your ass, brother."

"And three thousand years haven't dulled your willpower in getting in the way of my duels, sister." He responded with a tired sigh. "If you wish to catch up to them I would suggest you do so now."

"How long ago was that?"

"Five minutes," he replied.

She groaned in what could only be perceived as dismal disappointment. "They're probably there by now."

"Then go before they kill everyone," Gaara replied, lowering his head, closing his eyes and frowning in annoyance. "You can't have that one. He is my prey."

"Alright alright," she hyped before turning around and opening a Gargantua with a simple flick of her hand. It opened and she frowned. "It feels stiff."

"Someone forced it shut," Gaara explained. She always did this to him. Her childish exuberance to the point of borderline hyper always rubbed him the wrong way. "Now please _leave_."

"Grumpy much," she muttered with a cheeky smile before stepping through the opened portal. It closed slowly, and she turned around, bent over and gave him a little wave before it shut, leaving him alone once again with an unconscious opponent, again.

Gaara sighed, walked a few steps towards a slab of rock, sat down and watched his unconscious opponent with a hawks gaze. He could wait, as long as no one got in the way...

Again

* * *

"Apachi, Sun-Sung, Mila-Rose," she muttered their names as she turned her attention back to her opponent, a young child with cold eyes and snow white hair who wore the uniform of a captain. She looked down upon the smoking bodies of her three subordinates, unmoving where they fell far below, and she was unable to feel their rietsu. "You fought well."

The young Captain's eyes widened, showing his piercing crystal blue eyes as she undid all of the buttons of her shirt, showing the remnants of her hollow mask to the world, stretching from just below her nose to form a complete set of jaws, armour around her neck and extending down to her breasts to just keep her decency.

She needed to end this battle quickly. She needed to gain revenge for her subordinates. Her focus now was to kill the one who had killed them, that old man who wore the mark of the first Division of the Shinigami hierarchy. She had sensed other lives winking out across the field of battle which was the fake Karakura town.

The Shinigami had decimated all of the Fraccion Baraggan Louisenbairn had taken with him into battle and the second Espada was currently duelling a petite female Shinigami with shoulder length black hair.

The first Espda, Coyote Stark, seemed to be skirmishing with another two Shinigami wearing Captains jackets, one with long dark hair done up in a ponytail and the other with long white hair, both had duel swords.

Neither of her superiors numbers had activated their Resurrección, but she would have to. Her opponent was strong, a match for her if she didn't get serious quickly. She may be one of the strongest, but she had no qualms with admitting that she was the weakest Espada in attendance. She accepted that, and that was why she had no problem releasing her Resurrección first.

"Destroy," she muttered, pointing the blade in front of her yet slightly down, keeping her eyes on the still astonished Shinigami Captain and declared her swords name to him; "Tiburón."

A cyclone of water appeared to form from the air, enveloping her in its depths and reshaping to form a cocoon. She waited barely a few seconds for her change to complete before cutting herself from it with a simple horizontal slice from her reformed lance like blade, allowing the water to disperse and show him what she had become.

Her clothes vanished. The remnants of her hollow mask had disintegrated from her face, reforming into a collar with extensions that still covered the nipples of her breasts. Knee length white boots and elbow length gloves came into existence, a spinal like procession of bony protrusions formed vertically down her stomach from her breasts to just below her navel, two spaulders appeared on her shoulders with long white ribbons and her waist was covered with a line of bones resembling a mini-skirt covering black undergarments. Her sword changed as well into a large weapon which resembled a shark's tooth, her hand protected by the guard.

She struck with such speed that the young Shinigami didn't know what hit him until it was far too late. She cut through him with a diagonal stroke, barely aware of his widened, half surprised half horrified gaze before she blurred past him. Tia Harribel didn't give him a second glance as she turned her attention back to their leader, aware of the difference in power between them but unwilling to back down.

"You," she said in a voice void of emotion, but her emerald eyes simmered with it. His gaze, those emotionless orbs irritated her. "I will punish you for ending their lives."

She felt him approach with just enough time to parry, and watched with interest as that same young man who she thought she had cut down flew past her, the draconian wings of ice which represented his final release, his Bankai, flapped as they brought him upright. She should have known that a Captain would never go down so easy. Temporarily putting her revenge on hold she gave chase to the Shinigami, her own weapon at the ready. She was within twenty meters of him when she felt it and immediately peeled off to the side just in time to dodge the Gargantua when it opened.

Harribel threw herself back, several dozen meters before stopping and surveying the opening portal to Hueco Mundo with astonishment. Lord Aizen had sealed the access way. There was no way that anyone else could force it open. Then the voice came, a gravelly voice which echoed through the Gargantua into the battlefield. It was so loud that it brought all of the combatants to a standstill. Even Lord Aizen , imprisoned in the Captain-Commanders flaming prison and his two Shinigami lieutenants, Gin Ichimaru and Kaname Tosen, looked over.

"If you two don't shut up I will turn us around and drop you off back home," the voice shouted in agitation. "Do you understand!"

They walked out of the portal, seemingly unaware that every pair of eyes were starring right at them. There were three of them, walking in a formation similar to a v. In the lead was a tall man with spiky blond hair, tanned skin, piercing ocean blue eyes and whisker like streaks across his cheeks, whether they were tattoos or scars she was unsure. The two flanking him seemed as different as night a day.

One was a woman who looked in the prime of her youth.

The other was a man who looked near the end of his life.

The woman was beautiful with long pale blonde hair tied into a braid by white cloth; pale white skin, slanted eyes which were a dark brown. She was curvaceous, even if the dark blue jacket she wore covered her upper body, the skin tight jeans and leather boots showed her lower form off a little too well.

The man was old, yet there was not a hint of grey in his cut short hair or goatee which was both a deep maroon red, but his tanned skin showed the wrinkles of age, not as bad as the second Espada, but they still showed he seemed the oldest one of the trio. He was the shortest one as well, with a bulky build which contradicted the curvaceous build of the female or the physically fit, muscled form of the leading male.

"I'm not being forced back from this one kid," the old man growled before thumbing over to the female. "But the blonde bimbo can go."

"Who are you calling a blonde bimbo," the female replied with a dangerous edge in her voice; "You hairy, old, senile, baboon!"

"I resent that," the old man snarled before giving himself a look over. "I am not that hairy!"

"I need a drink," the taller male muttered with urgency as he turned away from his bickering compatriots to have a look around. "There is stuff that you two said that cannot be removed with anything but excessive amounts of alcohol!"

He then seemed to realise where they were, and the lead blond took one long look around at the audience before smiling. "What can I say, I can't take them anywhere."

Harribel watched on, bewildered, as he turned back to his compatriots who were still giving each other glares which could probably melt steel. "Alright you two break it up, we're here!"

"Really," the female said, voice dripping with sarcasm. "I hadn't noticed."

"Not surprising with that head of hot air you have there," the old man muttered.

"Bite me ape."

"Enough," the leader said with slight annoyance as he raised his hand and snapped his fingers, bringing a high backed throne of white marble with intricate carvings into existence. He sat on the throne, crossed his legs and leaned his head against his right hand. His two compatriots hesitated before stepping forward and calling identical thrones to levitate in midair by snapping their fingers. They both sat down, and looked on. "Take your pick, who do you want to fight?"

Harribel felt it.

Their confidence

Their conviction

Their power

Yet they did not feel like Arrancar. They felt like Hollows, true Hollows, like she herself felt to her senses when she was a Vasto Lorde, before she met Sosuke Aizen and became an Arrancar, only multiplied by a numerous scale of ten to a hundredfold in strength.

They were here for a single purpose.

To destroy

* * *

"Now this is interesting."

Gin looked over to his superior, watching as he looked up to the sky, or what would have been the sky if it wasn't for Yamamoto's prison he was holding them in. The turncoat wandered how Aizen could sense anything beyond this prison when he could not, but apparently he could because there he was with that common small smile on his face.

"You know what's happening out there I take it?" Gin asked with that same serpentine smile.

"Indeed, something very unexpected has happened," Aizen replied as he looked over in his first lieutenants direction. "Yes, something very unexpected indeed."

"Will it be a problem?" Tosen asked.

"It will be," Aizen replied, smile reforming into a frown, which was rare for him. Anything which could make Sosuke Aizen show even the slightest signs of doubt was a worthy opponent indeed. "We will have a tougher fight of it than I thought. The rulers of the Hollow have returned."

"The nine lords?" Tosen asked with a sceptical frown.

"Indeed," "So it wasn't an old children's tale after all," Gin muttered before looking up at the jagged edges of flame and smiling. "This could be fun."

"It is a setback," Tosen corrected, looking right at Ichimaru.

"It is a small setback, and it may work to our favour," the renegade Captain replied. "There are only three of them here, others may be coming, but they might even out the balance."

* * *

He watched as the three of them settled into their thrones, both unnerved, intrigued and horrified by what he saw. Genryūsai Shigekuni Yamamoto was not a man who was easily startled, but this was such a time. It took him a while to realise who these three were, but once he recognised their faces he saw the horrors they could unleash upon the battlefield with a very real dread.

He recognised all three of them.

Yugito, the Second Lord, the Azure Cat, the Lady of the Bloody Claws.

Roshi, the Fourth Lord, the Killer Baboon, master of lava and flame.

Naruto, the Ninth Lord, the Firstborn, the Emperor of the Foxes.

As terrifying as it was in seeing any of the mythical Nine Lords in the flesh seeing him was by far the worst of all.

He still remembered that battle, fought three thousand years ago, which destroyed so much in the time span of three days. How one of those nine tails could turn a forest into a wasteland with a single stroke if angered, and he was angry that day, furious that day. He had cared not for what he would destroy, because everything had been taken from him. His brothers and sisters, his chosen warriors and his mate, yes, that day he would have destroyed Hueco Mundo if he could have.

It was not wise to face this man's wrath. But a lot has happened since then, and he was not the man he remembered himself as. He was far stronger now than he was then.

So Yamamoto remained where he was and waited, waited for the released masters of Hollowdom to make the first move, and then find a way to counter them. The first eight, while all powerful in their own right were not the main threat.

He was.

The Ninth Lord was always and always will be the main threat.

The Ninth Lords eyes levelled upon him and flashed an angry crimson. Yamamoto simply returned his glare for what seemed an eternity before he relented.

He still remembered, off course he remembered.

But he had no regrets, the woman was a Hollow, and all Hollows were the same menace.

That's what he told himself, so he could sleep better at night.

"_I love you."_

He closed his eyes, forcing that sweet voice to the farthest corners of his mind and slamming it into a box, never to hear her ever again. He had used her to weaken them, nothing more. He knew she was the youngest and the easiest deceived.

He felt nothing for her, nothing!

_The look of betrayal in her eyes as he turned against her. How when she saw his intent, how the life which was once in those grey orbs suddenly went blank. Her voice still hounded him, even to this day, with tears rolling down her cheeks and pain in her eyes._

"_Why? Why? Why?"_

He shut his eyes tightly.

She was a Hollow.

What did she know of love?

"I have a bone to pick with you."

He looked up to lock eyes with him, most powerful of the Nine Lords, and by far the most protective. When he heard what he had done to her he had given him that criss-crossing scar on his forehead. When he heard of what his three seniors had done to the Second he killed them without mercy. When he heard of the Soul King's ambition he fought him for three days and nights without rest or reprieve.

"But I'll wait," he added as he leaned back into his chair. "If she isn't here to avenge herself then I'll have to do it for her."

It was then that the Gargantuan opened, and a single figure stepped out. She was petite yet tall, with brown skin the colour of chocolate, which contrasted with light green hair and orange eyes the colour of vibrant amber. She wore a sleeveless white shirt which cut off at the midriff and a pair of short pants which cut off at the knees, knee high white jackboots. She took a deep breath, grinned and stepped forward, snapping the fingers of her left hand to call upon her own high backed, white marble throne beside the Second Lord which she immediately sat upon.

"Didn't miss the party did I?" she asked with a wide, childish smile.

"On the contrary," the Ninth replied to the Seventh. "You're right on time. I was just telling Yugito and Roshi to take their pick of who they want to fight, eldest first."

"That's not fair," she replied with a pout.

"That's only because you're the youngest here." Naruto countered with a teasing smile. "Don't worry. You'll get your opponent."

Before she could reply the other female, Yugito, leaned forward, smiled and pointed to the female Espada and Toshiro. "I want those two."

"Suit yourself," Naruto shrugged before turning to Roshi. "And you?"

"Hmm," the fourth lord frowned before setting his gaze upon the Espada in the visage of an old man and Captain Suì-Fēng . "I want those two."

Naruto grinned widely before turning to the Seventh Lord, "You see, you still get the strongest ones."

"Good," she replied as she looked over at the long haired Espada, as well as Captains Shunsui Kyōraku and Jūshirō Ukitake. "I look forward to it."

The Ninth Lords eyes fell upon Yamamoto then, and bored into him. "Let's see how long they last."

The Second, Fourth and Seventh Lords all piped up in agreement before standing up, their thrones disintegrating behind them, and took off towards their chosen battle zones, all the while the Ninth Lord kept eye contact with Yamamoto, unmoving and intent. The intent behind the gaze was crystal clear.

Who is the best?

He had complete confidence in his brethren.

Could Yamamoto say the same?

* * *

**Author's Note 1:** _Bleach and Naruto are the properties of Tite Kubo and Musashi Kishimoto respectively. I make no profit from posting this story._

**_Author's Note 2: _**_Sorry about the long wait here folks and sorry that it took so long to get this latest chapter uploaded. I've had a long and eventful summer, and this story was kind of forgotten about as it went on. I'm also unhappy about the size of the chapter at a measly 3,742 words plus but I felt I didn't upload this story long enough and I just felt like the best way to end the chapter. Hopefully I will be able to update this story better as I go along, just be patient._


	5. Sharpen Your Claws

_**Chapter 4**_

_**Sharpen Your Claws**_

The cero came from nowhere, a beam of crimson light aimed right for him. Toshiro Hitsugaya, Captain of 10th Company was just able to bring one of his ice wings around to shield him from the strike. It was just barely enough to stop it, burning through to the final layer of ice and turning his wing into a smouldering wreck of what it once was.

He gritted his teeth, concentrated and froze the moisture in the air to reform his ruined wing. He had just finished when he felt her presence behind him, but it was too late to move. The back of her foot collided with the back of his head, sending the young Captain into freefall to the ground far below. Hitsugaya shook his head to dispel the pain and nausea before spreading his wings and forcing himself to a stop.

He flapped his wings once, then twice to right himself and had just gotten his bearings when he felt her approach at high speed. He spun around, and was just able to freeze his right forearm in time to strengthen it enough to absorb the blow from her flying heel kick. He felt the ice crack, just taking the worst of the impact before shattering like a pane of glass. The momentum sent him skidding back, using his spiritual pressure to keep him upright.

She didn't let up, and went right after him in a blur of motion. Striking at him with open handed palm and finger strikes, and each time he was just able to block and deflect her blows. The Hollow wasn't even using a weapon. Instead she just attacked him with her fists and her feet, trusting in her Hierro, her steel skin, to protect her from any counterattack.

Toshiro took several steps back, freezing his forearms to continue blocking the blonde haired Hollows continuous palm strikes. Then he saw it, a mistake. He parried a palm strike, noticing her overextend herself and lashed out with a stab from his Zanpakuto. His stab met with air, for she seemed to spin around him, small smile on her face as she danced out of his field of vision. Then she hit him with an open palmed strike to the back of his head, a slap really, which sent the young Captain stumbling forward a few steps before spinning around to focus a cold glare in her direction.

She smiled so wide that her eyes shut, arms behind her back as she purred. "Awe, you're so cute."

His glare intensified, but he did not respond nor rise to her bait. Instead he quickly went over what had happened between them so far. She was fast, incredibly fast, and she knew how to fight hand to hand with a grand professionalism born from years and years of training and honing her skills. She was also a tactician, leaving herself open on purpose because she knew exactly where he would strike and how to turn it to her advantage.

"I am not cute," he said as he blurred behind her, and stabbed out with his sword. He noticed her eyes widen ever so slightly before she stopped the strike, but it was how she stopped him that made his eyes widen in dread. She grabbed the blade with her hand, her bare hand, and levelled a soft smile his way, as if she were about to talk to a child. "Sure you are, if you think that strike was going to surprise me."

She then slapped him on both sides of the head, allowing the ringing of his ears to disorient him as she performed a somersault, bringing her foot down on the back of his head. He once again went into freefall, spinning and struggling to fight through the pain of her duel strike and stop his continuous head over heels spin.

It was then that the Espada came in, aiming a stab right for her side with her huge shark tooth blade. Yugito sidestepped the stab and spun in a similar manner that she did with the Shinigami before. The Arrancar ducked the strike aimed for the back of her head and countered with a swipe from her sword, which the pure blooded Hollow parried with the side of her right hand. A kick to the Arrancar's side made her sputter, a slap to the side of her head disoriented her and a heel palm to her jaw made her stagger.

Then came a Bala, creating the ball of condensed crimson energy with her left hand as she performed the uppercut Yugito used the moment to slam the Bala blast into Harribel's abdomen. The resultant explosion sent the Trecera flying back, slamming into a skyscraper and piercing through the steel. The silence barely lasted a few seconds after the crash died away, then a large cero exploded from the structure. Yugito was just able to spin to the side, feeling the heat of the beam as it singed her clothes.

Then Tia Harribel exploded from the smoking wreckage which was once the outer superstructure of the skyscraper, flying at near supersonic speed as she rushed into the fray, sword point aimed right for Yugito's back. The Second Lord jumped up, watching with lucid vision as the blade flew right under her. She looked up, eyes widening when she came face to face with the Third Espada, and the cero forming in her opened mouth.

The resultant explosion became a thin line of blackish crimson, followed by a mass of smoke which obscured all vision. It cleared within moments, revealing a wide eyed Espada and Yugito, arms crossed in front of her, forearms smouldering from the point blanc cero and when she looked over them her dark eyes were sharp and glaring right at her. The skin was already healing as she brought them down to her sides.

"Well done," she said with a dangerous smile. "You've gotten my attention, young blood."

The roar was their only warning before a dragon of pure ice flew up towards the two Hollows with speed. The red eyes were their only other warning. The Espada was able to perform a quick Sonido to get out of the way, but the pureblood Hollow remained where she was, watching as the creature approached. It collided with her, creating an explosion of steam and shattered ice. It wasn't long before the mist cleared, and when it did the young Captains eyes widened in surprise.

His dragon had been cut neatly in two, from the tip of its nose to the tip of its tail. The blonde haired Hollow was several meters behind the remains of his strike, bent over and holding what looked like a long polled war scythe in her pale hands. She righted herself and swiped the scythe, sending drops of water and crushed ice into the air. The dragon shattered the moment she finished her movement.

Now that she had righted herself Hitsugaya could get a better view of her new weapon. It was a long pole, two meters long, ending in a wickedly curved blade, similar to the scythe of the reaper he had seen in ancient human books. The weapon was as white as a Hollows armour, except for the serrated edge of the blade which was a light shade of grey.

The Vasto Lorde gripped her scythe with both hands and leaned back, preparing for a swing, a smirk was on her lips as she spoke. "Nice trick, but now it's my turn!"

The blade of the scythe sparked with azure energy, then she swung and the energy exploded into life. A feline shape appeared midflight, taking on the form of a large feline cat, a lioness or a tiger. He couldn't tell, but he knew if that hit him he would be burned to a cinder. The flames roared in anger as he swung his sword, releasing another of his ice serpents just in time to meet the strike. It wasn't nearly as strong, but it might be enough to deflect.

He was right.

The dragon and the lioness met, and Hitsugaya watched as the azure flames melted away his ice. The bulk of the energy had been deflected and the lioness lost her form as the flames exploded into several directions, but it was not enough for him to get away without a scratch. The young captain folded his wings around himself, and felt the heat as the flames slammed into them, melting layers of ice before they finally dissipated.

He opened his wings, noticing that they were smoking from the impact, water dribbling from the draconian shape. The young Captain chanced a look at the three flowers behind him, symbols which represented how long he could keep his Bankai active, and noticed with a little trepidation that two of them had vanished. He needed to end this quickly.

"Not bad, for a whelp."

He spun around, bringing up his sword just in time to deflect the swing which could have sliced him neatly in two. It only took him a split second to remember that the weapon she was wielding wasn't a sword. Her smile confirmed his remembrance for him. "Not bad kiddo, but it's not a sword you're dealing with here."

She pulled the pole of her weapon hard, and Toshiro knew that the serrated edge of the blade was coming right for the back of his neck. He ducked out of pure instinct, feeling the blade slice through his silver locks of hair. But he was unable to know what came next. The speed in which she created a cero was almost unbelievable, yet there it was, on the tip of her finger, a tiny ball of blackish crimson, ready to be released. Hitsugaya tried to fold his wings around himself, to give him some protection.

He was too late by a second.

She released her cero, creating an explosion of crimson light. The young Captain fell from the smoke, vapours trailing him as he and his shattered wings of ice, now in several pieces, fell to the urban sprawl below. Yugito watched him for a few moments before sighing and turning around, just in time to see the form of the maskless Hollow, standing ready to meet her.

"You could have attacked me while my back is turned," Yugito pointed out.

Harribel glared at her for a moment, as if the idea was insulting. "I will not kill a foe when her back is turned to me."

The blonde smirked, "An honourable Hollow. I thought you were all extinct."

She did not reply for a moment, spreading her legs and raising her weapon in preparation for battle. "You will not get into the way of Lord Aizen's ambitions."

"_Lord _Aizen," Yugito repeated slowly, deliberately, before gritting her teeth and glaring at Harribel in something akin to rage. "You may not have lost your honour, but you have lost your self-respect."

The Tracera Espada's only visible display of emotion was in her eyes, which simmered with sudden anger. "Lord Aizen saved us from our fates to die in that wasteland. He granted us great power and led us against the Shinigami!"

"He made you break your mask," Yugito countered with a flare of Rietsu. "A mask is a symbol of what you are, where you come from. You do not rip it off and throw it away!"

Her statement surprised Harribel. Her eyes only widened slightly, but it was clear as the world to Yugito. "You lie."

"Do I?" Yugito asked, before putting her hand to her chest. "Let me tell you something young blood, a Hollow who becomes Vasto Lorde, true Vasto Lorde, does not rip off their mask, they take it off. To learn to be able to take off and put on your mask at will, to find a way to fill the hole where your heart once was. That is the symbol of a true Vasto Lorde!"

Doubt, just the slightest flickers of what she had said sunk into this young creature, but they were quickly replaced by anger. She leaned her sword arm back and released a torrent of water in Yugito's direction with enough pressure to slice her in half. Through it all she spoke in a low, dangerous voice. "You lie!"

Yugito leaned back, brought her scythe over her head and swung it down just as the water came within range. The tip of the blade of her weapon pierced through the tip of the strike at the precise moment, cutting the torrent of water into two alternate directions which continued on their path, missing the Second Lord completely before dissipating in the air several dozen meters away.

Harribel watched, stunned, as her strike was deflected with such surgical precision that it should be impossible. Her eyes widened further when the form of her opponent was encompassed by azure flames and her spiritual pressure increased to thrice its original level. She straightened, showing that her dark eyes had changed colour to a feral azure.

"It seems that you have not just lost your self-respect, but your respect for your elders as well," she said in a dangerously feral tone. "Very well child. I will beat the respect back into you!"

Whatever she was about to do was interrupted by a distant roar, and as the two Hollows turned they saw a large dragon of pure, solid ice come right at them with dizzying speed. Yugito performed a perfect backward somersault while Harribel jumped back, both missed the dragon by mere millimetres, but it didn't matter when the serpentine mass of ice exploded, spewing shards of frozen water in every direction. Everything it hit became weighed down by frozen water.

Both were forced to use their spiritual pressure to melt and destroy the ice, but by then the young Captain was already on Yugito, seeing her as the main threat. She moved, but wasn't able to get out of the way in time. The blade pierced the left side of her abdomen, but wasn't able to go any deeper when her left hand gripped onto the still exposed blade. Their eyes met; cold turquoise against simmering chocolate brown.

"La Gota,"

A blast of condensed water resembling the blade Harribel carried soared through the air right towards the two, Hitsugaya was able to disengage his sword and jump away with a flap of his Bankai created draconian wings. Yugito was unable to, the blast slamming right into her with a deafening explosions and a mass of steam.

Both Shinigami and Arrancar watched the mist, not moving until it dissipated to show the blonde Hollow and her condition. She was doubled over, hacking and coughing, and when she looked up blood was dribbling from the corners of her mouth. It looked like her Hierro was strong only to a certain point. The only problem was that it took one of their main attacks to break through her steel skin.

"Not bad at all," she smiled, showing blood staining her teeth. "Well as Naruto always says... let's go wild."

There was a moment of eerie silence, and then the spiritual pressure exploded with such overwhelming force both the Shinigami and the Arrancar had to visibly struggle to remain upright. The force unleashed was almost crushing, like gravity itself had increased tenfold, to such a strength that their vision went into blacks, whites and greys for a time before they became used to it. Both knew what was coming, and from just feeling her release her power they knew they had to stop her before it was too late.

Hitsugaya acted first, swinging his sword and unleashing a long sinewy dragon made of pure solid ice. The creature moved with speed and velocity, flying towards the Hollow with the simple intent of freezing her in place.

Harribel was barely a split second later, pointing her sword right at the Second Lord and concentrating a great deal of spiritual pressure into it, shooting out a tooth shaped bullet of condensed water with almost blurring speed.

It was the condensed water bullet that hit her first, a grazing hit but enough to spin her in midair and loss her concentration. The dragon came next, slamming into her form, and encasing her in a solid sphere of ice. Her delicate, beautiful features frozen in wide eyed surprise before the block of ice began a long descent to the ground, where shattering into thousands of pieces was the only conceivable end.

* * *

"Hmm,"

Naruto opened his eyes and yawned, leaning against his chair idly as he felt the sudden dimming of spiritual pressure. He looked over, seeing a block of ice containing a figure falling to the ground at high speed, well aware that any normal human would shatter alongside the ice he or she was encased in.

"It's over already is it?" he muttered as he watched the ice fall, and then looked up to see the young Shinigami and the quite exotically beautiful Arrancar once again began to duel each other. Bullets of condensed water and writhing, exquisitely carved dragons of ice were once again being exchanged as both tried to hit each other. In their minds the threat posed by his sister had now been avoided, gravity would do the rest of the work for them.

The other battles were progressing similarily, his siblings were underestimating their opponents. None of them had released their true forms yet, and he was beginning to get slightly annoyed with them. Knowing that they were playing around, testing their opponents through jabs and strikes.

When were they going to get serious?

It seemed that one of them heard him, for he once again felt his eldest siblings spiritual pressure explode, watching as the ice encasing her cracked and shattered under the sudden and powerful rietsu unleashed upon the world. She broke free with a mighty roar, and he noticed that she was about to release her true power, her inner Hollow, as it were. Roshi may call her a bimbo, but to Naruto's eyes Yugito was one of the smartest of his siblings. The old saying of blondes being dumb was a myth.

"Over, huh?" he muttered before breaking into a feral grin, eyes glowing red for a moment before returning to their usual ocean blue; "As if."

* * *

She landed roughly on the flat roof of a multi-storey structure, wrapped her arms around her sides and shivered violently.

"Cold," she muttered as she took a shaky breath, looking up just as her chocolate eyes morphed from chocolate brown to unnatural azure, round pupil becoming a thin sickle. "I hate being cold."

Nights in Hueco Mundo were cold, bitterly cold. She had almost died from it when she had first awakened as a Vasto Lorde. Naruto had saved her from such an end, but ever since then she had an abhorrence hatred for being cold. When she was active she was fine, running and jumping kept her warm, but when she needed to sleep she used to either huddle together with her chosen or go to Naruto's fortress where she knew he would keep her very, very warm.

If Cold ever became a solid sentient being she would fall upon him and take pleasure in ripping him to bloody pieces, that was how much she hated the cold.

There was a spark, which became a mass of flames, darkest azure, which encompassed her form, melting what was left of the ice clinging to her frame. The flames flickered and writhed as if they had a life of their own, and the heat was so intense that both the Shark Empress and the 10th Division Captain could feel it as if they were standing right next to it. The flames seemed to condense, hiding her form in the dark flickering azure.

"Sharpen your claws," her voice could be heard over the flames, calm and confident. "_Matatabi_!"

The fire bulged and exploded, showering sparks and disintegrating flames in every direction. When it cleared they saw her. Her clothes had vanished, and in its place was form fitting white armour, clinging to her body like a second skin with the only opening being a v neck which went from her shoulders, done her chest and stopping at her navel, showing side views of her breasts. Her fingers elongated into vicious, curved blade like claws, mirrored by her feet, two long feline tails flailed in the high speed winds the same way as her wild blonde locks which had exploded from their confines and flew freely in the wind, there was no sign of any armour around her head, but her ears grew and became pointed. Her features changed as well, her canines elongated into long sharp fangs. Her eyes became glowing azure with sickle shaped pupils.

It all came together to give her a truly feral appearance.

She leaned back, puffed up her chest as she took in air and released a feline roar which shook the surrounding area, now her two opponents had no choice but take notice as her roar called up a shockwave of gale force wind in every direction.

* * *

"Hmm, loud," he turned his head in the direction of the noise, realising that one of the female Hollows, whatever they were, had released her true form, though whether she called it Resurrección or not was up for debate. "She is very loud."

"She was always loud, from the first moment I met her."

He turned his skull, devoid of skin and blood and cartilage to the owner of the voice. The old man with maroon red hair was sitting on top of an outhouse as he looked right at him, eyes not leaving his, as if daring him to make the first move. How he looked right at him without fear or hesitation, how he carried himself like he was his equal, no, his superior.

It was insulting.

The Shinigami female was on the other side of the roof, panting and in obvious pain. Not surprising considering she had lost an arm barely a few moments ago, but she did not die screaming like he had hoped. Instead she ordered her Lieutenant to cut off her arm before it spread to the rest of her, a bold move, but a smart one. She would dodge his deathly grip for a few moments longer.

"Aren't you going to fight now, trash?" he asked the question, pointing his bulky war axe right at him. "It would be boring if you allowed me to kill you."

"You've got some balls, young blood." The man replied as he jumped down from his perch. "To think that some upstart like you can talk down to one of your betters is laughable."

"One of my betters you say?" Barragan asked. Voice a growl as he spoke in a low, dangerous tone. "Watch your tongue trash. I am the God King of Hueco Mundo!"

"Only because we weren't there to put you in your place," the old man replied as he took a step forward. "Naruto is very angry with you, something about letting some Shinigami with dreams too big for his head beating you and taking over _his _fortress."

"_His _fortress?" the Second Espada asked. He probably would have raised his brow if he could.

Roshi threw his head back and laughed. "What? Did you think those ruins appeared out of thin air? You see him?"

Barragan looked up, and if he had eyes they would narrow dangerously as he spotted a high backed white throne. The man was slouching in the chair, and the Second Espada guessed he was either asleep or watching the battles before him without much interest. It was almost as if he knew the conclusion to these skirmishes before they even began.

"The fortress belonged to the boss," Roshi stated. "And he wants it back."

"Then why doesn't he face me himself?"

"Because I asked him if I could have a crack at you first," Roshi replied with a glare which could melt steel. "It is unbecoming for the boss to take on an underling like you."

"Underling?" Barragan asked with barely restrained rage.

"Yes, underling," the Fourth Lord nodded in agreement. "If a fellow Hollow, a Vasto Lorde, squatted in his domain he wouldn't mind, but you allowed his fortress to be taken by a Shinigami and he is not pleased."

There was a flash of crimson light, followed by an explosion. Barragan spun around in time to see his own throne blown to hundreds of pieces by a cero fired from the so-called boss's hand. His hand was still smoking as he looked down and fixed the Second Espada with a cold gaze, one which sent a chill up his spine by its intensity and will.

"Like I said," Roshi stated as he released his own spiritual pressure, watching as weak superstructure and masonry collapsed at the slightest release of his power. "The boss is not happy. To him you are undeserving of a stool, let alone a throne, and I have volunteered to end you on his behalf."

* * *

"Why couldn't I fight her?"

Joshiro sighed before looking over at his oldest friend and confidant, "Probably because you'd be trying to flirt with her instead of fight her."

Shunsui thought about it for a moment before nodding his head solemnly. "Yeah, but I'd still rather fight her than what we're up against now. I mean this solemn looking guy, his little sister and the kid over there."

Several meters away the Primera Espada, Coyote Starrk, yawned for a long moment before folding his arms. "Sorry about that, but it's not like I want to be here either."

"You two are almost exactly alike I swear," Jūshirō muttered more in shock than anything else. "The only difference seems to be that this guy doesn't seem to have a libido."

"You assholes," the Arrancar girl by his side shouted angrily, a little too angrily. "He's just lazy!"

"I don't need you sticking up for me, Lillynette."

"Another scary thought," Shunsui said before looking between the Primera Espada's Fraccion and the child like Hollow several meters away. "Am I the only one who doesn't see a resemblance here?"

It was true, although the white haired Captain didn't like to admit it. The child standing beside the Arrancar and the girl, currently several dozen meters up, bent over, and looking at them with an almost unnervingly quizzical gaze resembled each other quite closely. The hair, which was only a few shades different in colour, the build, which was similar, even the style of clothes was the same. The only conceivable differences between these two were the eyes, and their skin colour. The skin of the girl beside the First Espada was pale, like she had never felt the sun, while the other one was tanned like she had never been away from the sun.

Even their childish mannerisms were the same.

"Clones," Jūshirō muttered. "They're like clones born on different sides of the planet."

"Are they twins?"

"No way," the Arrancar roared, pointing at the other girl. "I've never seen her before in my li... hey, pay attention to me!"

The tanned girl was sitting down cross-legged, uncaring of the world around her, watching her blonde haired sibling with a smile. "She's a little angry."

"There's a difference," Jūshirō muttered.

"What?" Shunsui asked.

"Attention spans," the white haired Shinigami replied deadpan.

"We are not related!" Lillynette roared.

"Now then," Fu said bubbly as she straightened up and stretched with a purr of delight as her joints popped. "I think I should follow my sister's example, and win this as quickly as possible."

"And why is that?" Starrk asked as he fell into a fighting stance, hand on his sword. The Shinigami felt the change in her demeanour as well, as sudden and different as looking at the sun and the moon within seconds of each other. Their hands were on the hilts of their Zanpakuto within a split second of the change, ready and waiting.

"Because whoever beats their opponents fastest gets a crack at the old guy up there," she pointed right at Yamamoto. "And I want to kick his ass for what he did to my little sister."

"You're not the youngest?" Lillynette asked with a frown.

"Whatever gave you that idea?" Fu smiled a mischievous smile, but the smile seemed off with her reply and it gave all in attendance a chill.

* * *

Her roar was what made her presence known to her two opponents. That she was not out of the game yet, not by a long shot. If that didn't gain their attention than her explosion of spiritual pressure would undoubtedly do the trick.

They reacted fast, as fast as two opponents of their power would be able to. The Shinigami spun around, swinging his Zanpakuto, releasing another one of his ice dragons which roared and soared down on a collision course with the roof she was standing on. The maskless Hollow pointed her shark tooth shaped weapon at the same moment, releasing another one of her condensed water bullets.

Both slammed onto the roof at the same precise moment, the power behind the combined effort enough to obliterate the concrete slab and at least another three floors below it. The explosion sent masonry, concrete and ripped apart pieces of broken furniture in all directions. It was an impressive show of strength.

It was just not strong enough.

She exploded from the cloud with enough speed to blow a hole through the smoke, moving so fast that her entire form blurred into an almost incomprehensible shape. The Shinigami was just able to bring his Zanpakuto up to block before a clawed hand of wickedly sharp, curved blades collided with his weapon with a screech of steel. The force behind the blow sent him skidding backwards by several dozen meters before managing to come to a stop, watching as the feline queen's claws scrapped against his sword in a hail of sparks.

Then she vanished, using a Sonido or a Shunpo or whatever she called it to come up right behind him with such speed that there was no time to dodge, no time to even breathe. Her foot collided with his back, forcing the air from his lungs in a great gasp before he flew forwards with such speed that it was nearly half a kilometre before he was able to stop.

She did not relent, but instead changed targets towards the startled Arrancar. She moved so fast that Harribel wasn't even able to bring up her weapon to defend herself. The two collided, the Second Lady grappling her and flew. The Espada so dazed by the strike that she was barely able to struggle as they shot down towards the ground at supersonic speed to a multi-storey building below. She released her target, and the Third Espada pierced through the thick concrete roof, breaking through floor after floor until she collided with the concrete slab of the foundations and made a large crater from the impact.

She landed on the roof so hard that she created a crater on its surface before tapping her foot against the wrecked roof structure and propelling herself back into the air, watching as the ground where she once stood collapsed from her spiritual pressure alone. She smiled, took a deep breath and laughed jovially before taking off again at supersonic speed, right towards the Shinigami Captain who was even now preparing another one of his ice dragons.

He brought the sword over his head and slashed down, releasing not one but five dragons of pure ice which flew right at her. She performed a barrel roll, missing the first, steep climb to miss the second, sharp fall to miss the third and fourth and finally an increase in speed to dodge the fifth. She then flew on, five Asian dragons of ice following behind, claws of her right hand coming together to form a spear to pierce the young Captain, in the shoulder mind.

He was too young to die.

Her claws pierced right through his shoulder in an explosion of ice, no blood, and she realised that he had replaced himself with an ice clone just before it exploded, sending deadly sharp shards of frozen water in every direction like a grenade. Yugito was peppered by the miniscule shards, but her armour was good enough to block or deflect them.

She did gain a small cut on her left cheek though, and that irritated her.

He came right behind her, bringing his Zanpakuto down in a diagonal overhead slash. She spun around with blurring speed, blocking it with the razor sharp claws of her right hand. "Not bad young one, you have potential."

There was an explosion of masonry and concrete as the Arrancar flew from the building, which proceeded to collapse under the strain of her spiritual pressure. She roared in anger before driving her sword arm back and pointing it to the sky, screaming a single word.

"Cascada!"

She then pointed her shark tooth blade right at the two of them and fired a shot of water, which sucked the vapour out of the air and expanded, larger and larger until it became something akin to a tidal wave of condensed water, destroying everything in its path. Several blocks worth of housed were swallowed up by the blast.

Hitsugaya's eyes widened at the display of raw power.

Yugito's reaction was the opposite, she smirked at the display. "She has some potential too."

Before Toshiro could come up with some sort of retort she exploded into motion, kicking him right in the midsection and sending him soaring in an out of control spin to the ground below. She didn't even wait to see it he would right himself, instead shooting off at near supersonic speed right for the tidal wave which was still coming right at them.

She moved so fast that she did more than become a blur, elongating to almost twice her usual height. She hit the water and pierced through, the hole lasted for a second before closing up again. She continued on at speed, and Harribel barely saw her as she brought her clawed fist back and brought it forward again, smirk firmly on her full lips as her punch collided with her fellow Hollows face.

For a split second everything seemed to go still, then Harribel was sent spinning through the air at the speed of sound, slamming into another multi-storey structure and piercing through the concrete, at least two floors and out through the adjacent concrete wall. She landed on a street, creating a crater of broken concrete as she skidded at least ten meters before coming to a stop.

The Second Lady straightened and smiled, "A thousand years too early, young blood."

She caught Hitsugaya's slash with her right hand, claws enclosing around the blade as her feral azure eyes bored into his simmering turquoise. Youth was a wonderful thing, not even able to wait for his elders to finish their quarrel. She brought her free clawed hand back with blurring supersonic speed, preparing for a blow.

There was a blur of motion, and Yamamoto was there. Yugito was barely able to half turn before she noticed him, those cold eyes looking right into hers and his Zanpakuto aimed right for her heart. She may be one of the fastest, but the old man had definitely become a lot stronger since the last time she fought him.

Steel sliced through flesh.

Blood ran.

* * *

_**Author's Note 1: **__Naruto and Bleach... I don't own either of them._

_**Author's Note 2: **__Came earlier than I might have thought, started writing this a week ago and I am pretty happy with the result. Off course I leave that to my readers as well as letting them know that I am changing nothing. This is how I foresee such a showdown taking place. The Nine Lords are powerful, but they will not be immortal and the battle will not be one sided._

_**Author's Note 3: **__On a side note I am very surprised on how much of a response this has gotten, almost at five hundred reviews from nearly four chapters. That is unbelievable in my opinion, and thank you everyone who has reviewed. I hope that I can live up to your expectations in the chapters to come._


	6. Collision Course

_**Chapter 5**_

_**Collision Course**_

Barragan realised the flaw the moment the old man rushed into the attack, creating a pole shaped staff from thin air and planting a strike into his kidney with one powerful thrust. He realised it the moment he had to move himself to block the Hollows strike. He brought his war axe down, hearing the screech of metal on metal as it drove the staff to the concrete.

His special ability, an ability he carried as the personification of one of the ten aspects of death, the personification of old age, an ability to age anything within a radius of his sight and focus into nothing more than bone. His new opponent must know nothing of his ability to turn any opponent within his personal space into dust.

That would be his downfall.

"Fool," the Second Espada grinned as he unleashed his Senescencia, his ability to rot and deteriorate every object, living and not, around him, turning the target into dust. The old creature was keeping his distance for now, still in a ready stance, his staff held in both hands as if he were preparing to use it. Then he vanished without a trace, removing himself from Barragan's sight.

It was futile.

No one could break through his impenetrable defence, one which had the ability to rot everything that got within range. The second this unknown opponent tried to attack he would be caught, and the battle would end. Then he would kill that annoying Shinigami Captain, and her Lieutenant, in one fell stroke.

Something slammed into the back of his head; forcing him to stagger forwards a couple of steps before whirling around to see what had struck him. He came face to face with the end of the staff, which had extended to thrice the width it had been previously, and the owner, who was smirking just out of the range of his Senescencia.

"I'm guessing you're wondering how my staff can get through that defence of yours without rotting away, right?" the Hollow asked with a grin, ignoring the murderous intent which seemed to enshroud all of the Espada's being. No one struck him, the God-King of Hueco Mundo, like that. Anyone who did had a death wish. "It's really quite simple, we do not age."

"What?"

"It's rather simple," Roshi replied as his staff reverted back to its normal length. He spun it in his right hand, watching as it became a circle of blurred colour before stopping the spin. "We are the founding fathers and mothers of Hueco Mundo. We created the ten aspects of death, as well as all of the techniques and abilities you young bloods take for granted."

"I am tired of your rambling," Barragan snarled, gripping his war axe, Gran Caida, tightly in his skeletal hand.

"In short, we have a resistance built up to the ten aspects of death and all of the abilities they entail." Roshi replied with a feral grin, eyes changing colour to a surreal, unnatural black, the pupils seemingly expanding and overtaking all other parts of his eyes. "They do have an effect, but they cannot kill us easily."

"I'm tired of your lies," Barragan snarled before throwing his war axe right at Roshi, who easily sidestepped the bladed weapon before vanishing in a blur of motion. "Why don't you prove it?"

He knew exactly where the old man would reappear, and spinning around grabbed onto his right wrist with his left hand, watching as his opponents eyes widened before activating his Senescencia to full power. He watched as the ruinous forces he controlled fell upon the red haired man's hand, smirking as the skin, flesh, cartilage and muscle simply rotted away from his forearm all the way down to the tips of his fingers, becoming ash before vanishing in the wind.

His opponent howled in pain, and Barragan revelled in every moment of it, he howled and howled and howled until his voice became hoarse, but then he stopped screaming and simply lowered his head. For a moment the Second Espada thought he had simply lost consciousness from the pain, but when his free hand gripped onto the wrist of the hand holding onto him he suddenly felt that something was very wrong.

When the red haired man raised his head it was not the features of a pained and tortured man that greeted him, but the feral smirk of someone who had outsmarted his enemy. His now skeletal hand had suffered from the after effects of his ability to the point where even the bones were flaking away, but he did not seem to care.

It was then that Barragan noticed that the decay had stopped at his elbow. There was no proof that the deterioration had progressed any further. He watched in surprise as the man before him did not attempt to get free, but instead allowed his captured limp to continue to feel the full brunt of his Senescencia, to the point where the bone itself had turned to ash and vanished in the wind.

Then his other hand slammed against his right cheek in a simple slap. A simple slap, yet it was enough to send him stumbling a few steps away, forcing him to relinquish his grasp on the man's right arm.

"Let me show you something from the old books, young blood."

Barragan watched as his absent limp began to regenerate, beginning with the ashes of his very bones coming back together to recreate an exact replica of his bones from elbow to finger tips, every joint. Those bones and joints were soon covered by layers of cartilage and muscle, and the Espada watched in intrigue and horror as veins began re-pumping blood into the rebuilt tissue before it was completely covered by a layer of skin. By the time he was flexing his forearm and hand it seemed that the rotting of that limp had never happened.

"God-King you say?" the man asked before his face morphed into a feral grin. "Let's put that title of yours to the test. Are you strong enough to kill one of the Nine Lords? Let's find out."

His spiritual pressure intensified, stronger than even the female from before. His features morphed, canines becoming longer, broader and sharper. His ears became long and pointed, eyes once again morphing into a huge dark sclera which lacked the whites associated with human eyes. His spiritual pressure became visible around him as a mass of maroon fames, scorching to all within a fifty meter radius.

"Howl at the Moon," he growled before releasing a deep throated hoot. "___Son Gokū__!_"

He changed, completely and utterly. His form become taller and lankier, and his facial features, all exposed skin which was not covered by his armour began to lose their wrinkles. The years fell from him as if they were leaves falling from a tree in autumn. His maroon hair lengthened to a cascade of maroon, a plate appeared on his forehead, with long legs and arms which were nothing but muscle. His clothes vanished, leaving his body covered in plate-like white armour from his neck all the way down to the tips of his toes and fingers.

What was before him was no longer an aging old man.

What was before him was a twenty to thirty year old hybrid.

He raised his head, took a deep breath of air and laughed heartily. "I forgot how it felt to be in this form, everything becomes so clear."

His whiteless eyes settled upon the deep blackness of Barragan's barren eye sockets before he released a feral grin, showing his enlarged, sharpened canines. "Let's get started my Lord. I look forward to seeing if you really are a God-King or not."

He opened his mouth, spreading his arms as a cero formed on the tip of his tongue, a ball of swirling dark red energy. A release of breath fired the cero, ball turning into a beam of crimson energy capable of atomising any lesser creature. The beam came within a meter of Louisenbairn before simply disintegrating into a mass of spirit particles.

"You have to do better than that," Barragan barked gruffly.

"Thought as much," Roshi muttered before vanishing in a blur of motion, reappearing several dozen meters above the skeletal Hollow and pointing the middle and index fingers of both hands right at him, circular spheres of a dual cero forming on the tips of his fingers. He looked down to see the Shinigami Captain, in the exact same place as before. "Oi, Shinigami. It'll be a good idea to get off the roof!"

She looked up, and he saw that she was unnaturally pale and her face was covered in a sheen of sweat, yet she vanished in a Shunpo barely a second later, reappearing several rooftops away before falling to her knees and clutching the stump where her missing limp once was. Roshi could be called many things, but to use this level of attack against an injured woman, even if she was a Shinigami, was a definite negative in his book. Some would call him a sexist pig, but he liked to think of himself as traditional.

The two cero exploded from his fingertips, lancing down towards the unmoving form of the Second Espada. The skeletal shape did not move, not an inch, remaining where it was, looking right up at him with those empty eye sockets. The resulting explosion destroyed the rooftop, and the full building below it, sending chunks of masonry and pulverised superstructure flying in all directions, impacting walls, smashing windows, crushing cars and breaking everything in the surrounding streets. When the smoke from the impact cleared it showed nothing more than a small mountain of rubble.

And Barragan Louisenbairn was standing, completely unharmed, in the exact place where he was when the Fourth Lord unleashed his strike. Roshi looked down at him for a moment, before whistling in appreciation. "That is a fine ability you got there. So no matter how powerful the attack is it won't break through that shell of yours."

"You seem too finally under-"

His words were stopped by a fist to the face, with such speed and precision that he didn't seem to know what hit him until he had been hit. The skeletal Arrancar flew through the air at blurring speed, slamming into the adjacent apartment block and piercing straight through the concrete wall, across a floor, through the outer wall on the other side of the structure, across the other street and finally through the wall of the next structure.

Roshi frowned as he looked at his right arm, which had lost all of its flesh and cartilage up to midway through his forearm. A few moments passed before the cartilage and skin began to regenerate, and the Lord began flexing his fingers with an expression of controlled pain on his features. "So it goes through awakened Hierro as well does it? That is a pain."

He heard her before she approached, not in her technique or any flaw in her strike, for they were as silent and flawless as anything he had ever seen. His senses in his awakened form were just too acute that he could feel the presence of a fly from a mile away. He spun around and brought his other arm up in time to block a spinning heel kick, grabbing onto the ankle and slamming her to the ground.

The Shinigami coughed up blood as the air was forced from her lungs before beginning a tremor of hacking and coughing. "Do you really think you could defeat me in your condition, woman?"

She had a petite frame, with shoulder length black hair done up in two braids tied with white clothe, pale skin and gray eyes which showed such fight in them. Such supreme stubbornness was commendable. What was more commendable was when she began forcing herself back to her feet, falling onto her side when she tried to use her left arm for support which wasn't there anymore. Still she refused to lay down and instead rocked herself so that she could use her right hand for support, slowly getting to her feet.

The Espada did a number on this one.

"I applaud your strength and fortitude Shinigami," Roshi said as she looked right at him with fierce dark orbs which did not seem to know defeat or surrender. "Most in your position would be barely able to move, let alone get back to your feet. I would recommend a medic or a doctor though."

She glared at him, obviously insulted that he didn't seem interested in fighting her or threatened by her, "You bastard, who the hell are you!"

Roshi smiled, "Who are we? We're just a worried group of Hollows who want their domain back, nothing more."

Before she could muster a reply the building across the street collapsed, there was a groan of steel and then it just collapsed as if it were hundreds of years old. Masses of rubble, wood and steel fell away, becoming another huge mountain of rubble and debris. The Arrancar rose from the collapsing structure, skeletal hand tapping the bone where his left cheek would normally be.

"I wonder how many more times your can do that, trash." Barragan called, raising his right hand and allowing his long poled, double headed battle axe to form.

"He is going to be a problem." Roshi muttered as he flexed his recently healed fingers. "With that ability of his it doesn't matter how powerful you are. If you hit him long range any attack will disintegrate before it hits him. If you try short range you will become nothing more than ash, the perfect defence and offence all in one."

Suì-Fēng already knew all of this. The entire time these two Hollows had been fighting she had been attempting to come up with a new strategy to try and get through the Espada's defences, but every attempt she made on him failed and those failed attempts had cost her in her left arm right up to the elbow, turned to ash by his rotting ability. She only narrowly escaped such an end by ordering her Lieutenant to chop it off.

Laughter made her look over at the new Hollow, who threw his head back and howled in glee before levelling a bloodthirsty grin in the direction of the Espada. "Gaara is going to be pissed when he gets here. His ultimate defence seems to have been surpassed."

A clawed hand grabbed onto her shoulder with lightning speed, and before Suì-Fēng could react she found herself flying through the air and impacting against the far side of the roof, right into the concrete railing. She immediately berated herself for letting her guard down around a Hollow before looking up.

Her eyes widened, Baraggan had moved with such speed that he must have become a blur, skeletal hand grasping around the new arrivals throat and squeezing. She looked on in shock as the skin of his neck began to rot and decay.

"I will rip your head off." The Espada snarled.

The fist slammed into the skeletal nose with enough force to break the bone and send the Hollow flying back several meters, releasing the other Hollow from his gaze, once freed Roshi doubled over, hacking and coughing, hands grasping onto the decayed flesh of his neck even as it repaired itself with impressive speed. He looked up with bloodshot eyes before glancing down at his fist and managing a growl as he noticed the skin and cartilage of his knuckles were nothing more than bone.

"That was a cheap trick, young pup."

"An eye for an eye," Baraggan replied as he straightened.

"Good point," Roshi replied after a moment of thought, cracking his neck muscles right and left. "I love fighting supposedly invincible opponents. It makes beating you all the more satisfying."

It took Suì-Fēng a moment to process what had happened, but the more she thought of it the more it made sense. Did he throw her away not as an attack but to get her out of range? Did he just protect her? The thought seemed impossible to her, a Hollow protecting a Shinigami, yet did it just happen.

The idea pissed her off.

There was a sudden surge of spiritual pressure, catching the attention of all three combatants. It was Roshi who seemed to be taken by it the most. His head snapped to the side, in the direction of the battle between Captain Hitsugaya and the two female Hollows. His eyes widened and his face went pale.

"Yugito!"

* * *

They moved so fast that they were a complete blur. The single sword of the Espada known as Cayote Starrk, and the duel katana belonging to the Captain of the 8th Division, Shunsui Kyōraku were nothing but near unidentifiable blurs of liquid silver as they struck and countered each other with near continuous, almost ringing clangs of steel. Like their swords, their wielders were difficult to keep track off, through a succession of Kido spells and Hollow abilities they proved to all who watched them that they were some of the most powerful competitors on the field.

Neither had released their swords, neither had showed any large piece of their abilities to each other. But at this moment in this round they were almost completely evenly matched. Lightning, fire and dark red spiritual energy struck, breaking through superstructure and singeing the air with absolute ease.

Fu simply watched the visage before her, knowing that it was exactly that, a visage. The two opponents were testing each other, trying to find any potential advantages or disadvantages which could be used in their favour. Neither of them were using even a third of their strength in this battle, at least not yet.

"Okay, so, why aren't you doing anything."

She looked over to see the other young Arrancar giving the white haired Shinigami a baleful look, to which the man just shrugged his shoulders and offered a serene smile. He was sitting cross-legged on the roof of an adjacent building, watching the battle with a casual aloofness. "There's no need to interfere. My friend over there usually likes to fight his battles fairly. The question you should be asking is why this lady here isn't jumping in."

Fu looked over at him from her own sitting position, lying on the roof a few meters away from him. She looked over, studying him for a moment before sitting up in a fluid motion, crossing her legs and folding her arms as she looked up at the two men fighting in the skies above.

"They're not taking it seriously." She said after a moment of silence.

"Huh," the little Arrancar asked in indignation.

"Why would you say that?" the white haired Shinigami asked serenely, though she could tell that he was interested, if only subtly.

Fu sighed as she laid down again, propping her head up by putting her hands behind her head and closing her eyes. "They're not even using a quarter of their power. When they decide to fight all out then I will join in."

"_Boring_," the Arrancar girl murmured with a pout before looking over at the Shinigami and cracking a childish smile. "I suppose I'll fight you then."

Fu cracked open an eye in time to see her reach for the horn on the right hand side of her head and pulling on it, revealing that it was actually the hilt of a sword, a curved sword. She then looked over at the Shinigami who was still sitting cross-legged, relaxed and serene. He even had a cup of Sake in his hand.

"Can I have a cup?" she asked.

He looked over at her, surprised, before smiling softly, "When you're older."

"I'm almost three times older than you," she retorted as she flipped to her feet and walked over to him at a sedate pace.

The Shinigami looked at her for a long moment, before shrugging and reaching into the long sleeve of his Shihakusho, pulling out a small bottle of Sake and another cup. He popped the cork with his thumb, poured a small quantity into both cups and handed the new one to her, which she took.

"Is it poisoned," she asked.

The Shinigami downed his in response, "Does that answer your question?"

"Thank you," she replied, downing her own cup before sitting beside him and allowing it to be refilled. "It does."

"Why the act?"

"Pardon?"

"You were acting pretty childish beforehand," the Reaper replied as he refilled his own cup. "Now your acting as mature as can be."

"I'm bipolar,"

"No, you're not."

"Worth a try," she replied, downing her second before looking at the empty cup. "This stuff is good."

"Another?"

"Please," she allowed her cup to be refilled again. "My big brother would love this stuff."

"I'm guessing he's the one sitting on the throne over there?"

"Good eye,"

"Thank you."

"Don't ignore me," the Arrancar cried in agitation before forming a cero on the tip of her tongue and firing it right at them. The Shinigami took a sip of his Sake with one hand, and with the other casually swiped the cero aside, allowing it to fly far to the right and dissipate into the atmosphere. "What the hell!"

"That was pretty week," Fu muttered as the Shinigami refilled her cup for a fourth time.

"Indeed," the white haired man agreed. "I have been a Captain for a long time and I have never seen such an underpowered cero. Perhaps you should return home and play with a ball or something."

"You assholes," she roared as she jumped forward with her sword held at the ready. "Stop underestimating me!"

It happened in a flash, the Shinigami stood, half drawing his Zanpakuto in time to block the young Arrancars sword. Then he blurred into motion, kicking her away and sending her flying several meters through the air before she could stop herself. By the time she could he was standing, holding onto her sword as if it were a walking stick.

"Wow," Fu whistled before breaking out into a grin. "That's a pretty cool pose."

"Thank you,"

"You're welcome," she replied as she stood up and offered him her hand, "My names Fu."

"Jūshirō," he replied, shaking her hand.

"Stop ignoring me!"

"Go home kid," Fu called back.

"What!"

"She's right," Jūshirō replied as he broke eye contact with Fu and meet Lilynette with an unwavering gaze, one of a veteran soldier. "In strength terms I have seen Gillian-class Menos Grande release stronger cero than what you just released. You are not strong enough for this battle."

"Well said," the Seventh replied before tossing him the cup, which he deftly caught. "I enjoyed drinking with you, but I am afraid I cannot continue. I am here for a purpose."

Jūshirō nodded as he finished his own cup of Sake before casually placing the two back inside his sleeve, drawing his Zanpakuto in a swift motion. "I guessed as much. I am your opponent."

"I'm sorry to hear that," Fu replied as she held out her hand, allowing a long polled halberd to form into existence. It was a beautiful weapon, with a crescent moon shaped blade and a black tassel fixed at the tip, fluttering in the wind. She spun it expertly in her hand before falling into a battle position, ready for him. "Shall we?"

The Shinigami was already moving, using a Shunpo to gain the advantage of higher ground, right above her head and came down with a diagonal cut. The Hollow was fast though, spinning around and bringing up her halberd in time to block the strike. The Captain disengaged, somersaulted back and pointed an open palmed hand right at the lithe woman.

"Hadō 31; Shakkahō."

A ball of right energy swirled into existence and fired right at her. Fu watched it, forming a Bala at the tip of her tongue before firing it at the last second. The two balls met, and exploded in a swirling mass of dark and bright reds.

"Beautiful," she muttered at the mass of colour, before spinning around in time to see the Shinigami prepare to release another Kidō spell directly at her. She felt so nostalgic, seeing one of the Shinigami spiritual arts being used after so long. She opened her mouth, preparing another Bala just as he called the name of his spell and set it loose.

"Hadō 33; Sōkatsui!"

He released a torrent of blur spiritual energy right at her at a wide arc, forcing her to disengage her Bala and jump high into the air, watching with a grin as the electric blue energy moved up to meet her. A cero appeared from her free hand and she fired it at a wide arc, allowing it to destabilise and become not a beam but a wide wave of energy similar to his spell. The two strikes met, and exploded in a dazzling display of blue and red.

She used the flash to vanish in a Sonido, reappearing right behind the Captain and with a wide swing of her halberd released a torrent of purple spiritual pressure, a spearhead shaped blast aimed at piercing his chest. The Shinigami vanished courtesy of a Shunpo, missing her strike altogether before reappearing directly behind her, and forced to bring up his Zanpakuto in time to deflect a stab from her halberd, forcing the blade to the side and away from him.

"Good use of Kidō," she said with a smile. "Not bad reactions either."

"I was one of the best in my class," the Captain replied with a serene smile before vanishing from sight, and Fu heard his voice directly above her, once again creating a Kidō spell, this one in the upper numbers. "Hadō 63; Raikōhō!"

He was right above her, firing a huge blast of lightning shaped energy right at her, taking on the form of a powerful lightning bolt. She looked up at him, eyes wide, before attempting to blur away from the attack. She was a split second late, managing to dodge the worst of it, but still gaining a nasty looking burn on her left arm as she came to a stop several meters away.

She smelt her burning flesh before she felt it, and it was only after looking at the blackened skin of her left arm that she took a sharp exhale of breath. "Damn, that hurt."

"Sorry,"

She gave him a puzzled look, knowing that the burn was already beginning to heal. "Sorry for what? It was a good hit."

"You heal fast," he replied.

"One of our advantages, we can take almost extreme amounts of punishment as long as it isn't fatal or crippling." She replied, spinning her halberd in her hand a few times before once again falling into a defensive posture. "I suppose it's my turn, right?"

A cero began appearing from the palm of her free hand, swirling and increasing in size until it was twice the normal mass. Jūshirō waited, preparing himself to move to dodge it, considering the second it took a Hollow, even an Arrancar, to make such a powerful strike it was usually easy to see which direction it was coming from and how to defend against it.

She vanished in a blur, and the Captains eyes widened before he looked up in time to see her right above him, firing a powerful cero, dark crimson light obscured his vision. The cero collided with him in an explosive mass of crimson energy, but the Hollow didn't whoop in triumph, nor did she act as if the battle was over. She remained where she was, waiting patiently.

The smoke cleared.

The Shinigami remained standing, a shield shaped circle of golden light between him and her. The solid, condensed spiritual energy was chipped and charred, but it was strong enough to take her cero and not disintegrate on impact, "Bakudō 39; Enkōsen!"

"Very good reflexes," Fu said, more to herself than him.

Jūshirō was about to respond before he felt something, a weakening in spiritual pressure from the battle taking place with Captain Hitsugaya. His opponent noticed faster though, a lot faster. Her head suddenly snapped to the side with supreme quickness, eyes widening before becoming narrowed slits.

"Naruto is going to be mad," She muttered, but her eyes were now shimmering with the promise of violence and her grip tightened on her halberd. "He dares strike at another one of my sisters!"

Jūshirō felt it, a sudden burst of spiritual energy. He looked back to where the throne which housed the strongest Hollow in attendance only to see that it was now empty. The Captain didn't have to guess, because he already knew what the leaders likely destination was. From the moment the female Hollow released he knew that she was capable of beating the young Captain Hitsugaya, and Yamamoto maybe a bit too rule conscious but when it came down to the coin he protected his subordinates.

"Sorry," he looked around and was just barely able to bring his own Zanpakuto to deflect as she flashed in with a stab. "But I need to finish this one quickly and rip that bastard limp from limp."

He knew who she meant, and his eyes narrowed. "I can't let you do that."

She swung her halberd, and the force behind it surprised the white haired Captain who was thrown backward by several meters before coming to a halt. He was just able to sense her presence before she came at him again, this time from behind. He spun around, once again deflecting a stab from her halberd before attempting to move forward for a diagonal slash.

She didn't vanish this time.

She blurred, and she was right beside him.

He was just able to bring up his Zanpakuto to deflect the new strike, but it was so powerful it sent him soaring through the air by a dozen meters before forcing himself to a stop. He looked up from his crouch to see her coming right at him, halberd ready for a swing. He was about to bring up his sword to block when it hit him.

A tremor, which made his whole body go numb, and suddenly he went into a fit of hacking and coughing, blood suddenly dribbling from his mouth. His eyes widened in shock before he cursed his illness for his weak body.

Not now, of all the time for it to hit it had to be now.

There was a sudden shrill gust of wind, and he looked up to see Fu right in front of him. Her halberd was mere millimetres away from the side of his head, yet it went no further. Her eyes were widened in surprise before narrowing in confusion, brow furrowing.

"You're hurt," she murmured in disbelief. She looked at him closer and he could swear her eyes were glowing before they widened. "No, you're sick."

Ukitake was about to say something, but her sudden end of hostility was surprising. The halberd vanished from her hands, and she straightened herself, amber eyes looking into his for a few moments before she sighed.

"I withdraw," she said. "I will not fight an opponent with such a disadvantage."

"No," she looked at him with a frown as he straightened. "I can still fight."

Her amber eyes once again looked into his for a few moments before looking to the side. "No, I still withdraw."

Ukitake was unsure whether he should be insulted by this or not.

She had an opportunity to end this battle, to finish him off and go after the Captain-Commander.

Why didn't she take it?

Why did she halt her blade?

"I will not attack an opponent who cannot defend himself," she said suddenly, as if she were able to read his mind. She looked him in the eye again.

"But-"

"As well as that," she added, cutting him off. "I've grown fond of you."

It took him a moment to properly analyse her words, but by then he was bewildered beyond belief. "What?"

"You shared Sake with me, four of them in fact," she replied, giving him a smile. "You're not like Shinigami I've met before. In fact I'd say you're a bit of an oddball."

He waited for a moment, digesting the information before throwing her an unsure smile. "I'm not sure whether to accept that as a compliment or not."

She giggled in response, "Take it any way you want, but I'll still need you to stand aside."

"I will not."

She sighed as she shouldered her halberd, "Please, I'm begging you."

"The Shinigami fighting that Arrancar is my friend, and I will not let you double-team him."

"You misunderstand," she replied. "I'm not looking to double up on anyone."

"What?"

"He and his fellows have been squatting in my big brothers domain. We're more interested in sending a message to both sides than teaming up against one." She declared, spinning her halberd in her hands idly. Her amber eyes looked at the battle between Shunsui and the Espada, and Ukitake followed her vision to see that the two were now separated, and that the younger Arrancar was now by his side.

"What is going on?" he muttered.

Fu shushed him before smiling, "Wait and see. It's about to get interesting now."

* * *

Yugito stood where she was, unable to move, unable to even breathe as she watched the display in front of her. The blonde didn't sense him coming right at her at all; barely realising he was there until the very last second. She wasn't given enough time to turn and face him before his blade pierced through her steel skin like a knife through warm butter.

Blood dripped from the serrated edge of his blade.

It wasn't hers though. The blade bit a few millimetres into the skin of her wrist before it was forced to a stop.

Naruto stood between them, feet spread and right hand gripping tightly onto Yamamoto's Zanpakuto. His hand was bleeding profusely, crimson rivulets tracing the edge of the Captain-Commanders blade before allowing gravity to force them to fall to the ground far below. Just the sight of Naruto, her Naruto, bleeding was a shock to her. The eldest of the Hollow, whose Hierro was so strong that nothing bar the most powerful of attacks at point blank range could pierce it.

She remembered Yamamoto when he was a Vice-Captain, tall and lean, with full brown hair and a few days old stubble. He looked nothing like he looked now, an old man covered in battle scars with white hair. He was nowhere near this powerful the last time she saw him either. Yet the evidence was there, right in front of her, his attack which could have crippled or killed her with her barely realising it, she needed Naruto to save her.

Naruto pushed out with his injured hand, sending Yamamoto skidding back several meters before bringing his hand up to look at the deep cut in his palm. The bloody gash was already healing, and in a few more moments nothing more would exist except for the shed blood. He swiped his hand, allowing the red liquid to fly before bringing his gaze upon Yamamoto. The old man didn't even look like he lost his balance when he was forced back. He flicked his sword to remove the spilt blood and stood there, waiting.

His left hand circled around her waist and pulled her too him, so close that her body was pressed flush against his. She didn't mind. He was only this intimate with her. He leaned in to whisper into her ear, eyes still locked with the Captain-Commander.

"You're playing around," he said with all seriousness. "Stop it."

"I wasn't playing," she pouted, but seeing the seriousness in his eyes she sighed and relented, pressing her head to his chest.

"You were playing." Naruto replied before planting a chaste kiss onto her forehead.

"Alright, yes, I was." She relented after a moment.

"Stop doing it," he added, pressing his head to her temple. She relished the warmth of the contact, and purred quietly without meaning too. "Stop messing around and go wild."

She closed her eyes and smiled, "Alright."

"Good," Naruto nodded, before releasing her from his grasp and moving so that the two of them were back to back, him facing Yamamoto and her facing the Espada and the young Captain. She was a full head smaller than him, and considerably slimmer. "Now hurry along, and let me deal with the old fart."

"He's strong," she muttered, giving his left arm a squeeze. "Not as strong as you, but damn well close."

Naruto shrugged. "That's what happens. We remained the same over the years while the world got stronger."

Yugito said nothing in reply, just smiled before taking off at breakneck speed, aiming right at the young Shinigami and the Espada. Naruto didn't watch her go. His eyes were completely on Yamamoto. He took a few steps forward, watching as the old man before him didn't relent, or step back or show even the slightest hint of trepidation and fear, but remained where he was.

It was an unmovable object, meeting an unstoppable force.

"You haven't changed." Yamamoto said solemnly as he raised his Zanpakuto, "Haven't aged a single day."

Naruto smirked, bringing his own sheathed sword into being with a thought and catching it before gravity forced it from his reach. He drew the blade slowly, hearing the continuous grind of steel against wood. "You've changed, aged pretty badly."

Yamamoto chuckled, something which would horrify any of the present officers under his command. "It has been three thousand years."

"That it has," Naruto agreed as he finished drawing his blade, holding the scabbard in front of him and rearing his sword back, smirk morphing into a feral grin. "So tell me old man. Do you want to live forever?"

Yamamoto looked right at him before taking a breath and bringing his sword up in a ready stance. "At my age forever seems far too long, and it looks like what I did will finally catch up to me today. I am prepared."

"It is not me who will do so," Naruto replied with a smile, waiting. "Someone else has that right."

A gargantua opened right behind him, easily big enough to swallow him whole if it were a real mouth. The darkness within just showed the shape of a feminine silhouette, tall and slim with long hair. The figure stepped into the light without hesitation and walked until she was standing right beside the Ninth Lord, hole between worlds snapping shut behind her.

She was smaller in stature than the Ninth, top of her head only reaching up to his chest. Her skin was as pale as he remembered, hair as black as midnight cascading down her shoulders all the way to the small of her back, gray orbs which once held such life but now were dulled, a sculpted round face with a dainty nose, long neck, and sinewy build. She wore a black armoured vest which left her arms bare, leather pants and knee high black boots.

She hadn't changed.

Even her style of dress was the same.

He looked into her gray orbs for a moment, feeling disrespectful to shy away from her intense gaze. He knew this day was coming, ever since all those millennia ago when he knelt beside her and stayed with her until the end, until she was sealed away. She could not speak, could not move, but the look in her eyes haunted him to this day and perhaps for the rest of his life.

Betrayal seemed to be sculpted into those gray orbs.

"Rin," he muttered. "He's all yours Pup, just like I promised."

Her words weren't a reply or a retort, but a message that she was not in a talking mood, not by a long shot. "Bare your Fangs, _Kokuō_!"

* * *

_**Author's Note 1: **__Naruto is the property of Masashi Kishimoto and Bleach is the property of Tite Kubo. I make no profit from publishing this story and suing me would probably be counterproductive at this point._

_**Author's Note 2: **As most of you are aware when I first started posting this story I had the idea of using Spanish for the released forms of the Nine Lords and Ladies (We'll just call them The Nine from this point onward) and a few readers informed me that my translations were completely wrong from what I wanted, and that the real translations sounded considerably less cool, so I was at a loss as to what to call them, then Kishimoto gave us the true names of the Biju and so I got lazy and decided to just use them, sorry about that__. Below that is a translation of the Shinigami Kido spells._

_**Kido Spells**_

Hadō 31; Shakkahō – Way of Destruction; Red Fire Cannon

Hadō 33; Sōkatsui – Way of Destruction; Blue Fireball

Hadō 63; Raikōhō – Way of Destruction; Thunder Roar Sear

Bakudō 39; Enkōsen – Way of Binding; Round Lock Fan

_That should do the trick._


End file.
